From Hertfordshire

Back in 2016, my wife, Huguette, was in a care home – St Matthew’s in Redbourn – living with an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s disease. She was usually unresponsive and often difficult when staff cared for her.

After speaking to care home staff and members of this charity, I agreed to help create a personalised playlist of music we hoped Huguette would respond to. During my next visit, we played this music and almost immediately Huguette’s face lit up and she started to sing along to the songs she recognised. She was clearly positively stimulated by this music, and her reaction had a positive effect on myself and others present. In later trials care staff were similarly positively stimulated by the evident joy Huguette was experiencing listening and singing.

After this experience the family created a Boom Box of music she responded to which was available to staff and visitors to play to Huguette. There is no doubt that having this playlist enhanced the quality of her remaining life.

Song that stood out: ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’ – Jacques Brel

From Hertfordshire

My name is Sarah Finch; my mother has been living with dementia for more than 10 years now. When the care home approached me with the opportunity to find some of my mum’s favourite songs, I was naturally very keen for her to participate in anything that could potentially improve the quality of her life!

I was blown away by what happened – my mother was listening to songs that referenced her life when she was young. She no longer speaks properly, but suddenly she engaged, laughed – and then became articulate and joined in the songs. I hadn’t seen my mother like that for a long while.

I am convinced that personal music could open the way to improving life-quality for many, many people having seen and experienced the power music has on the mind. I also believe that the knock on is massive savings for our overstretched NHS!

Song that stood out: ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’ – Noel Coward

From Worcestershire

I remember only too well from my husband Steve’s nursing home days, how an amazing transformation took place in those with dementia when I played the piano. One eighty year old lady with white hair actually spoke and said “What a lovely piece of music.” Normally, we could not understand what she said at all. Then she was back again to her old unintelligible muttering.  She was visited every day by Poppa, her devoted husband. She, to my knowledge, never uttered anything intelligible. The nursing home was in Bromsgrove, near Birmingham.