Pop-up choir to sing for Peterborough's Sue Ryder Thorpe hall Hospice

More than 80 specially-recruited women from across the city and beyond will perform live on stage at The Cresset in Peterborough on Saturday (July 21) in the Sing for Life 2018 gala charity concert, supporting Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice.
Sing For Life comes to The CressetSing For Life comes to The Cresset
Sing For Life comes to The Cresset

Directed by William Prideaux, the concert will mark the end of a pop-up project organised by award-winning women’s choir Peterborough Voices which - as well as raising much-needed funds for Thorpe Hall - aims to make singing inclusive and accessible to all women regardless of age, social background or previous experience.

The project grows year on year and once again has been inundated with singers wanting to get involved, attracting women from as far afield as Spalding, Bourne, March, Stamford and Huntingdon, most of them with no previous singing experience whatsoever and each with their own individual reason for getting involved.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

While many had always dreamed of joining a choir and jumped at (or been pushed into!) the opportunity to do something about it, others were looking for a personal challenge and new goals to take them outside their comfort zone, and for some Thorpe Hall and the exceptional care it provides to its patients and their families has a very personal significance.

Lisa, from Stamford says: “As a cancer patient I thought to myself ‘I need to start doing things’ – not a bucket list as such, just things I’d always wanted to do – and when I saw Sing for Life advertised I thought I’d have a go. The whole experience has been just brilliant - both the singing, and meeting so many different people from all walks of life. I’m definitely planning to keep singing, and I’ve just been given the all clear, so lots to look forward to!

“After more than two years of treatment I can’t do enough to give back – thank God I haven’t needed it personally, but Thorpe Hall does an absolutely amazing job for so many people!”

On behalf of Thorpe Hall Hospice, community fundraiser Nilesh Patel says: “We’re really delighted that, once again, Sing for Life is supporting us in this way. It costs us £9,000 a day to provide care to people in our local community. That’s not just the nursing, it’s things like lovingly prepared meals, specialist medical care, family support and round the clock opening hours so friends and family can be there whenever they need to be.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

For team Sing for Life 2018, the project has proved an overwhelmingly positive experience.

They have become “part of something amazing” in the words of Jo, from Werrington, who continues: “I’ve made some really great friends doing something I love and that I find exhilarating, challenging, hard work and completely rewarding.”

Tickets at www.peterboroughsings.org.uk or on 01733 265705