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A choir without a voice shouts to be heard

CCTV.com

10-25-2016 00:49 BJT

This next story is about a choir where none of it's members can speak. But just because they've lost their voices, doesn't mean they won't be heard. The group is set to tour Europe to raise awareness to the plight of throat cancer patients. Fitted with artificial voice boxes, they call themselves "Shout at Cancer" because they're fighting back against the cancer, which robbed them of their ability to speak.

Thanks to this choir, these people are able to 'shout' again and they're aiming to 'let it all out' as loudly as they possibly can.

The words of the song by the 1980s pop band "Tears for Fears" are special to them and they've named themselves "Shout at Cancer" because of it. Here the choir's been given the opportunity to perform at the Royal College of Surgeons in London.

They're all on a mission to make people, including doctors, aware of how isolating and difficult it is to have throat cancer.

Margaret Young discovered she had thyroid cancer over seven years ago. It would not have occurred to Young to join a choir before her cancer, but she was persuaded to do it by a speech therapist who'd heard about "Shout at Cancer".

"They kept saying I should join the choir, but I've never been able to sing, so they fooled me by saying, well you don't really have to sing, it's just speech therapy and well, they lied, because we do sing and that's how I've ended up in the choir. But it's nice to meet other people in the same position because you can become very isolated, it would be easy to become isolated," said choir member Margaret Young.

Shout at Cancer is also a charity which helps to fund the choir.

Thomas Moors is the co-founder and one of an array of medical experts from scientists, voice therapists, musicians and surgeons who are raising money to spearhead new research. They want a scientific enquiry into how music therapy can be used for people who have had laryngectomies.

He is hoping the choir will make people sit up and understand the needs of people surviving throat cancer - better social support, better voice training services and even research into better technology.

"As soon as they do it, after their first concert, but (also) going and preparing and meeting up and having the group effect and enjoying the music and the sound they are producing together, it has an amazingly uplifting effect on them and they are the best ambassadors for this project themselves, because they go out and they spread the word and they are so enthusiastic about it that sometimes I even have to ask them to shut up," said Dr. Thomas Moors, founder of Shout at Cancer.

As well as planning a number of Christmas concerts, next spring the choir will travel to Brussels and Barcelona to spread their message.

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