A new song, written especially for NHS Forth Valley’s nurses choir, will be unveiled this week to support this year’s Children in Need appeal, which helps raise money for disadvantaged children around the UK.

Titled ‘Ride the Storms’, the song, which was composed and arranged by the choir’s Musical Director Fergus Munro, aims to reflect the way health and social care workers are responding to the Covid-19 pandemic and helping people through the storms. Also appearing in the video are three pupils from Windsor Park School in Falkirk, and piper Alec Soutar, a porter at Forth Valley Royal Hospital who regularly plays for local patients at staff.

Rita Ciccu Moore MBE, Choir Chair, said: “Forth Valley Nurses Choir knew they wanted to keep up the tradition of supporting Children in Need, and in the current climate a music video is the best way for us to do that. Nurses and health and social care workers simply can’t make all the hurt go away, neither can Children in Need, but what we can do is support people who are vulnerable or scared and help them ’til the hurting is over.

“This year we asked pupils from one of our local schools, Windsor Park School in Falkirk, to join us. As one of only three schools for the deaf in Scotland, they nurture and support pupils who have hearing loss to develop language and alternative communication skills. The pupils have access to a British Sign Language tutor for weekly signing lessons and we are delighted that they feature in our video using their signing skills.”

Because of the need to maintain physical distancing, members of the Forth Valley Nurses choir, the local school pupils and the piper all had to record their contributions individually. Their performances were then edited together to make a music video which will be shared on social media later this week in the run up to Children in Need on Friday 13th November 2020.

The Choir say they wish to thank all their members and especially the children (Brooke Lawless, Dillon Baillie, Maisie Sneddon along with teacher Lesley Haston and Lauren Brown, Deputy Head Teacher at Windsor Park School, Falkirk) and the musicians Alec Soutar, Philip Todd and Charlie West who joined them, for taking part in the video. Although there have been some laughs (and tears) along the way, they say the support given to each other during these difficult times has been tremendous.

You can watch the Forth Valley’s Nurse Choir performance on the NHS Forth Valley YouTube Channel.

To find out more and donate to this year’s Children in Need appeal visit the Fundraising page.