In case you had any doubts about the benefits of singing still..

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Read this- I won't put it all in full here but it's amazing On Monday 11th July, NVPN member Lizzi Stephens was a guest speaker at the All-Party Parliamentary Group Round Table discussion on Arts and Health in the House of Lords, representing research into singing for health. Lizzi has written the following report:
 
“Dear colleagues,
 
Shilpa has done a sterling job in reporting on this event -
https://myheartsingsuk.wordpress.com/2016/07/13/from-community-centres-to-parliament-the-world-of-arts-health-and-wellbeing/  Thank you Shilpa - very much!
 
It was not just about singing for breathing. I also quoted, with permission, verbatim from one of my Isle of Sheppey Sing Sure singers who had told me recently that singing has saved her life on several occasions. When I asked her to explain this she told me as follows: "Singing has changed my life because.... I have had severe pain since 1984 following a road accident. This has progressively got worse because of the added problems of arthritis and IBS  and diabetes. With so much pain, life is really not worth living especially when I can hardly move at all sometimes. What is there to look forward to in life? Singing has been the light at the end of my tunnel and has made life worth living. Without it I would make the choice not to be here.  I had also gone to see the back specialist and he showed me my back scan which showed that in an area of my lower back, the muscle was completely gone. He said that he 'didn't know how I was still walking about'. I told him that my central core was strong from singing and he said, 'whatever you do, don't stop doing it'. 
 
I read this out at the APPG Round Table discussion as part of my 3 minute speech! It was so powerful you could have heard a pin drop!  Ginny - this is her real name and she also encouraged me to use it - has a fabulous soprano voice and is usually happy to take on solo parts although her confidence is still in need of some support.
 
My thanks also to Vivien Ellis for informing me of her project to insert training for GPs in training on the value of Arts in Health, which got a brief mention during the APPG Round Table discussion.
 
For further interest, this APPG discussion is part of a series of such events in the House of Lords and all are recorded and the information is being fed into an inquiry, which has the aim of integrating Arts interventions into the NHS.  There is already a report by the APPG on Wellbeing Economics titled "Wellbeing in four policy areas". It is an interesting read talking about making the enhancement of wellbeing a government goal and can be found on here:  http://www.artshealthandwellbing.org.uk/APPG “
 

https://myheartsingsuk.wordpress.com/2016/07/13/from-community-centres-to-parliament-the-world-of-arts-health-and-wellbeing/