BBC Music Day event proves that music has the power to change lives

We’ve had a wonderful morning celebrating BBC Music Day, which this year is helping to bring music to everyone living with dementia by 2020.

At St Andrew’s in Northampton we hosted a live 1940s tea party for the people in our care who are living with the condition. Our event featured live performances from The Femmes - a glamorous vintage three-piece singing group - alongside talented solo artist Natasha King. After performing on stage, Natasha visited our six dementia wards to sing to patients who were too unwell to attend the party.

The set list featured a variety of songs from across the ages, including foot-tapping hits such as Chattanooga Choo Choo, How Do You Like Your Eggs in the Morning?, Walking on Sunshine, Rum & Coca Cola and Mr Sandman. Dancing was encouraged and several of our more mobile patients took to the dancefloor, led by some volunteer ballroom dancers who kindly gave us their time and energy.

Jess Lievesley, our Deputy CEO, thoroughly enjoyed the morning’s excitement. He explained:

“I think this is a really brilliant event. Music helps people with dementia to connect with memories and feelings that perhaps, because of their condition, they haven't been able to engage with for some years. This is really moving many of our patients to tears. It's incredible to see. It has been a brilliant day. “

Dr Andy Stranaghan, Clinical Psychologist, works with our patients who are living with dementia. He said:

“Every day here we see the positive impact and the benefits it has on our patients living with dementia, and one of the important factors is the social value of it. So as you can see today, it's brought lots of people together; it helps people to feel included and that really contributes to making communities more dementia friendly.”

We were honoured to have BBC Look East in attendance for the morning: to view their news report, click here (from 05:40).

Thank you to everyone who helped make this event extra special for our patients.