JOY’s Story

Joy is a member of the choir, which is run by Nordoff Robbins music therapist Fraser Simpson, and is made up of around 70 people, who meet weekly in the hospice’s day centre.

Joy, who has been singing with the choir for several months, described the positive impact it’s had on her saying: “I lost Andrew on Easter Sunday this year. We’d been married 43 years, we were best friends and I couldn’t imagine not having him with me. When he passed away at Mountbatten Hospice it was devastating.

“However, Joining the hospice choir has been my life saver. I look forward to it every week. When I’m singing I get a special feeling – it’s as though Andrew is standing right beside me. It’s the only time that this happens.

“Everything in life is difficult now, but when I’m concentrating on singing I forget everything else and it takes me to a different place. The songs we sing are uplifting and I go away contented and peaceful. Often I am awake at night, but after choir I sleep well. It’s like a kind of anaesthetic.

“Singing is so enjoyable but it’s more than that. The choir is like a kind of counselling. When I am singing my heart wells up and all the deep anxieties, the stresses and strains I’ve been carrying around all week all come out when I sing and are lifted away. At choir I feel like I come out of my bubble – I feel like a person again. It does me the world of good and Andrew would want me to be enjoying myself. It’s a blessing!”