Blue lights choir 'a weekly dose of medicine'

"To go and sing with your friends and do something that's just enjoyable..it's community - it's powerful, it's really powerful," said Det Insp Alice Draper.

She was speaking about The Sound of Sirens Services Choir in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, which is open to serving and retired public service workers.

The choir provided a respite for "blue lights" singers in the wake of a mass stabbing on a train in Cambridgeshire in November, she said.

Music director Joshua Daniel said: "We had people in the choir who were there and [afterwards] we did what we always do, and that's just to sing and be among friends."

Draper, who is based at Parkside police station in Cambridge, heard about the stabbing as she drove to work.

"Instantly, you know this is going to be one of those days that you're never going to forget, and it's going to be tough," she said.

"When I pulled up at Huntingdon station, everyone was there - the fire service, ambulance service, police and there were just blue lights. But everyone pulled together, knew their part - everyone worked together."

She managed to make it to the choir practice straight after her next night shift.

The choir was initially set up as a 12-week wellbeing project in 2022 by staff based at Cambridgeshire Police's Huntingdon HQ and has been led from the start by Daniel, a professional musical director and singer.

The founders decided to make it permanent, opened it up to all public services staff - including police, fire, ambulance, NHS and military personnel - and rebranded it The Sound of Sirens Services Choir.

Draper said: "Those jobs are tough, and they're relentless; you go to work one day and you don't know what you're going to come up against - and then you go back the next day and the next and we're always there."

It is "our weekly dose of medicine", said a singer who works in an NHS mental health team, while an officer involved in murder investigations added, "coming here just lifts me up".

As many choir members were shift workers, they could not always make it to the Tuesday night rehearsals, Draper said.

"But even if you can only make it half the time because of work, we always make sure people can be included as our USP [unique selling point] is to go, and let go," she said.

The choir performs at local events and organises its own concerts with an ethos that a love of music is more important than previous singing experience.

Draper said: "What we achieve is greater than the sum of the parts.

"We can all sing on our own - in the shower, at home or in the car - but actually, when you come together, there's something really special about that feeling of when all your voices join together, and you nail your song."

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