Charity of the Month: Striking the Lost Chord
Throughout July, the charitable donation from all tickets bought through Party For The People will be donated to Yorkshire-based dementia charity Lost Chord. This means that every time you enjoy live music this month, you’ll be helping someone in desperate need to do the same – and the effect could be greater than you’d think.
Lost Chord provides live therapeutic music performances in care homes for people living with dementia. Led by top singers and musicians playing a variety of styles, the sessions offer vital interaction and enjoyment for people whose lives can lack stimulation – often with amazing results. At the sound of a familiar song or melody, people with significant speech and memory impairment frequently re-discover the ability to sing along, dance, and even recollect the time, place and people they connect with the sound.
This is no coincidence: research shows that exposure to music can have a tangible impact on people with dementia. It’s thought that since our auditory abilities are one of the first brain systems we develop, they are also one of the last to be damaged by the onset of dementia. This means that familiar sounds and music can reach people even when all other responses have been lost. As Lost Chord’s own motto aptly puts it: “Where words fail, music speaks.”
To find out more about Lost Chord, visit their website.
Photo Credit: Lost Chord Facebook
