I thought I eat healthy food I had a good BMI, I exercise, and I don’t drink much at all, so I would be ok. But I was told I had rectal cancer, commonly known as bowel cancer and that I would need surgery, a stoma and chemotherapy. I hadn’t expected to hear I had cancer. It was a frightening time and my sons who were age 13 and 16 at the time and I really felt for them.”

It was September 2020 and I was called for my first routine mammogram, working as a breast cancer nurse, I knew the protocol – but then I had a recall afterwards to say they wanted to see me and it was then I was told I had breast cancer. I felt grateful in a way that I was seen in September rather than the March as it may not have been picked up six months earlier and it could have been a different story.

Following surgery and radiotherapy to treat the breast cancer I felt my body was fixed, but my mind wasn’t.

I remember going into clinic one day and thinking, I can’t do this, I need to change something, my mind needed to be repaired and that’s when Tenovus Cancer Care changed everything,” smiles Christine who is from Conwy."

I got in contact with the choir master Andrew Roberts and he asked me if I knew what type of singing voice I had? I didn’t have a clue! I wasn’t even sure I could sing, but that didn’t matter, as the main thing was that I felt welcomed as soon as I came through the door on that Tuesday night in Llandudno.

For the first six weeks of being in the choir I kept expecting someone to tap me on the shoulder and tell me to mime. Instead, I felt lifted in spirit and in mind. I truly believe that Tenovus has probably saved my life.

I never thought that singing in a choir would have been on my bucket list, but it was, and If I missed a choir night, I could feel myself going downhill and getting slightly more depressed. 

Having got so much out of the choir, I knew I wanted to give something back and so I decided to volunteer in the Conwy Tenovus Cancer Care shop a morning a week and I love it, I meet so many amazing people.”

I always tell people how the choir made me feel whole again. I come out with a beaming smile every time I go and since joining three years ago I have sung in the Tenovus 80th birthday celebrations in St David’s concert hall with 400 other choristers, done a firewalk, an abseil, organised a Tea for Ten event, held a dressage event, Canter for Cancer and now I’m organising a fashion show, using clothes and accessories from our shops.

This is all done with the help of family and friends, old and new as we have a strong community here in North Wales.”

I listen to patients and If I feel they need help with their mental wellbeing, I do refer them to the choirs. The study undertaken by Tenovus Cancer Care into how music and singing can change your wellbeing is now well known and I know for sure it has changed my life.

What a difference an hour can make to how you feel is just amazing, but choir does that. I remember going for a walk after singing practice and crying in the rain, Andrew is such an amazing choir master and I so look forward to my Tuesday nights and the way it lifts me up and makes me feel alive.

Singing in a choir has fixed me and I have no doubt it saved my life."