The Voices of Windrush Choir has been busy spreading joy among themselves, and to the people of Preston.

The choir formed earlier this year as part of Preston’s Windrush Initiative community organisation’s annual event, The Windrush Festival. Since then, this group of strangers say they have become friends.

One of the founding members of the choir, Andrea Fontaine-Smith, said: “Originally we just practised for our performance at the 2019 Windrush Festival in June. But we shared a love of music and laughter, and as a group of strong women we decided to continue.

“Between us we secured a sponsor, set up social media pages and fought to find practice spaces, sometimes using choir members’ houses. It’s a real team effort with everyone chipping in – a member’s mum even made the outfits we perform in.

“The choir is such a happy and relaxed part of our week. We aren’t very formal in the way we operate. We practice and work very hard, but we laugh as much as we sing.

“It’s not about how good you feel you are as a singer, as most of our members said they couldn’t sing when they first joined!”

A recent performance saw the choir singing Christmas carols for the residents of Laurel Villas Residential Care Home in Ashton.

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Andrea said: “The residents really enjoyed it. They joined in and sang along, and we stayed for a little while afterwards talking to them.

“We are planning to return next year, and will be offering the same to other local care homes that are interested.”

The choir is looking for new members. Anyone interested should get in touch via the Voices of Windrush Choir Facebook page or on email to voicesofwindrush@gmail.com.

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Have you seen the Voices of Windrush Choir perform? Let us know in the comments.