Barnsley: How singers are tackling the loneliness of cancer

Cancer can leave you feeling like you are on your own. But one group of cancer patients in Barnsley has found a way to bring people together through singing. The group, calling themselves We Can Survive Singers, have just released their first single. BBC News' Kevin Shoesmith found out more.

It's called Catch Me If I Fall; a fitting name for a song from a group formed to support others. But founder Cheryl Roberts insists they're not a choir - giving it that label might exclude some from joining, she explains.

"We get a lot of people who say they can't sing," she says. "But that doesn't matter. We're a support group that sings."

That cleared up, Cheryl tells me how she formed the group in 2018 using a £5,000 grant from Macmillan Cancer Support and sheer determination.

Today, it has 28 members - chiefly, women, although they're keen to recruit more men - who meet each Wednesday at St Paul's Church in Barnsley's Old Town.

"One word which sums up how a lot of cancer patients feel is 'lonely'," she says. "It can be incredibly lonely."

Mother-of-two Cheryl, 56, talks from experience. She spent 19 years as a complementary therapist, specialising in cancer care, and in 2016 was herself diagnosed with breast cancer. Although told it was curable, Cheryl recalls feeling "like I was in a bad dream".

At the time, she was working at The Well, a wellbeing centre in Barnsley. "For me, it really hit home when I saw my name written as a patient in the treatment book as opposed to a therapist. I just crumbled."

Cheryl endured rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and is now, at least on paper, cancer-free. She disagrees. "I don't think cancer patients are ever cancer-free," she says. "I think it's always there. It really affects you. Once your family and friends have celebrated beating cancer, you suddenly feel very alone."

That's where singing comes in, she says.

"Singers have said the group has changed their lives," says Cheryl. "It's given them a real sense of belonging. They're with friends, people who really understand what they've gone through."

When I've lost it all

You are going to find me

There's no one to call

You'll be right beside me

I know most of all

You are going to catch me if I fall (oh oh)

You are going to catch me if I fall

Don't forget all the roses

So cheeky and white

Barnsley's proud winners

And fabulous nights

We now use our voices

To help find the way

United as one

With a smile and a sway

During the pandemic, helped by a further £200 grant from Macmillan Cancer Support, the singers moved to Zoom. "We'd meet virtually twice a week," says Cheryl. "At the time, many of our members, due to low immune systems, were self isolating and this was a really important time for socialising."

Former head teacher Sarah Aston, 49, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013. In 2019, she was further diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia.

"I lost my identity when I had to give up work," she says. "My work was a huge part of who I am. That disappeared."

The mother-of-three became involved with the group three years ago after spotting a recruitment poster in The Well.

Sarah says: "I thought to myself, shall I be brave? I decided I was going to be and emailed them. It was the best thing I ever did."

She describes the group as being "an outlet" - a place for people experiencing huge upheavals in their lives to share their experiences with those who really understand.

Sarah likens a cancer diagnosis to a race with no finish line. "At the start line, everyone is cheering you on but as you near that finish line people begin to walk away. Only you never really cross that finish line."

Amy Hebdon, Macmillan's relationship fundraising manager in Yorkshire, said the charity was "delighted" to support the singers.

She added: "Singing has been shown to improve our sense of happiness and wellbeing and it's been great to see the group go from strength to strength as they support each other and entertain the people of Barnsley with their talents."

Meanwhile, Cheryl and Sarah are rightly proud of the group's single, available to download from iTunes. "We've formed a really special, unique bond," says Sarah.

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