Hemel singers ready to rock the abbey

Sounds Around The Abbey, which runs from Monday to Saturday, July 24 to 29, is a series of six concerts featuring performers from Rock Choirs across Herts, Beds and Bucks.

Audiences can expect an impressive sound, with five-part harmonies of popular songs across the decades plus classics performed by soloists Kerry Ellis and Lizzie Deane.

Rock Choir member Kate Clarke said: “I’m not a religious person but there is something truly special about singing in a spiritual space.

“When I joined six or seven years ago, I hadn’t sung since school and I’d forgotten how joyful it can be to sing with others.”

Many people join Rock Choir following a significant event in their life. For Kate, this was losing her mother to breast cancer in 2009.

Kate said: “We were so lucky to have the lifeline of Rennie Grove. It was only when we were referred to the charity’s hospice at home nurses that we felt we had some power to help and some sense of control over this terrible situation.“With Rennie Grove’s help, we were able to ensure Mum died peacefully and with dignity, surrounded by love, in our family home.”

Kate’s dad had been living with prostate cancer since 1999 and, when his condition deteriorated in 2014, Kate didn’t hesitate to look after him at home.

She said: “Having had that first experience of Rennie Grove’s care, I had the confidence this time to say: ‘I can do this.’”

Hemel & Welwyn Rock Choir is performing on Thursday July 27. For tickets, call 01727 890290, or visit www.stalbanscathedral.org