Birmingham nurse wins unsung hero award for singing to children

A nurse who created a wellbeing programme involving singing to sick children has won an award for her work.

Sally Spencer, a leukaemia advanced nurse practitioner, has won the Sky Arts Hero Award.

Alongside Birmingham-based choir Ex Cathedra, Ms Spencer performs songs to distract and soothe the patients at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Ms Spencer, who has worked at the hospital for 25 years, said singing had “enormous benefits” for the children.

Ms Spencer told BBC Radio WM she came up with the idea of Singing Medicine in 2002.

She said: “I became very involved in the choir’s education and participation programme and did lots of events with children in primary schools.

“We did a big celebration event in Symphony Hall and it was just full of joy. The children were buzzing and I had a thought that the children I look after [at the hospital] miss out on opportunities like this.

“It made me feel quite sad.”

Ms Spencer said she used her position at the hospital and with the choir to suggest bringing singing to the hospital

“I was in a fairly unique position as I had my foot in both camps”, she said, adding: “I would stress that we aren’t just performers.

“We come into the hospital to perform but we are soothing and we are distracting.

“The physio often asks us to help them and through the singing we can keep the children moving – it has enormous benefits.”

The Sky Arts Hero Award recognises unsung heroes who use the arts to help their local communities and has only one winner.

Speaking about the moment she received the award, she said: “It was a complete shock.

“I was fed a whole bunch of lies to get me to the children’s hospital that day.

“I’d been told that we were there to film a short film about Singing Medicine’s 20th anniversary.”