Sing to Beat Parkinson’s were delighted to collaborate with the Movers and Shakers podcast, sponsored by Cure Parkinson’s, on a one day workshop entitled ‘In Good Voice’. This event was in support of the Parky Voice campaign initiated by Movers and Shakers, with a particular focus on issues surrounding the voice for people living with Parkinson’s.
Hosted at The Grand in Folkestone, over 50 people from all areas of the field came together: Parkinson’s nurses, Speech and Language therapists, Singing and Parkinson’s practitioners, people living with Parkinson’s, academic researchers and volunteers and carers across the sector.
Mark Mardell, former BBC presenter and an integral part of the Movers and Shakers podcast, joined us in the afternoon to talk about the impact that Parkinson’s had had on his voice, which was particularly poignant given his career as a broadcast journalist.
Emily Renshaw-Kidd, artistic director of our parent charity Canterbury Cantata Trust, who is also the director of music at Langton Boys school in Canterbury, joined us for the morning session with some of her students. Emily is also lead facilitator at Canterbury Skylarks Parkinson’s group, and has initiated a groundbreaking project that integrates some of the sixth form students with Canterbury Skylarks, to observe, support and write about their experiences as part of the group.
Professor Grenville Hancox, our founder, demonstrated his approach to singing for wellbeing, and Nicola Wydenbach, our training director, led the group in a variety of material in the afternoon, along with Trish Vella-Burrows, another of our lead practitioner researchers.
We were able to demonstrate that our approach to group singing for people with Parkinson’s is grounded in research and targeted toward the key symptoms of the condition, and the outcome of the day was greater advocacy for the potential of group singing to help manage some of the symptoms of Parkinson’s, in addition to having a significant impact on people’s general wellbeing.
