Cancer Charities Concert was a Close Call

The award winning ladies choir 'Impromptu' invited us to join them, and three other singing groups, on Saturday 10 May in St Andrew's Church, Cheam. We jumped at the chance to help support two cancer charities in this way. Our hosts particularly wanted to make a donation to the Royal Marsden, as this hospital had cared for two of their members with terminal illnesses. Two of their current singers are nurses at St Raphael's Hospice, and so this charity was to benefit as well.

In the run-up to the concert The Downsmen were falling like flies! Our chorus director, Eileen Mason, agreed to go with only17 men available out of a total of 33 listed as being with the club! However, as this reduced chorus only had one tenor, and his voice was suffering at rehearsals, a contingency plan was hatched. We could fill our slot in the programme with two soloists if all went pear-shaped on the night.

On the evening of the show 15 men made it to Cheam, and Eileen got a splendid performance out of them. Not only were the audience very appreciative at the time, but we received some lovely comments before returning to our respective homes.

To cap it all the organiser e-mailed us this message when the dust had settled.

“I'd particularly like to thank The Downsmen, who I know really gave their all to be there on Saturday. I also had a brief chat with the representative that The Downsmen sent earlier in the day and understand you had a contingency plan in place in case the choir couldn't sing, which was extremely thoughtful and considerate. We didn't really get the time to meet you properly, but I hope our paths will cross again soon.

Thank you all again,

Debbie, and all at Impromptu”