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Reconnecting with life through power of music
A group of elderly people are slumped in chairs. Their eyes are vacant and they have withdrawn into themselves. They cannot communicate and rarely move unaided.
They are suffering from dementia, which has robbed them of the ability to interact with those around them and often makes them agitated and even aggressive.
In comes a professional musician and starts to play. At first there is no response from her audience, this is different to anything she has experienced on stage.
A woman goes over to one of the elderly ladies, picks up her hand and encourages her to stand. She then embraces her and the pair start to shuffle around the room. They are eventually joined by others. Once vacant expression are full of smiles and dull eyes are full of life. For a few minutes these dementia sufferers have reconnected with the world. That is the power of music. That is the power of Lost Chord. The woman dancing is Helena Muller. She firmly believes in the power of music to stimulate parts of the brain we do not use.
Helena is chief executive of the charity she helped found in South Yorkshire 10 years ago. She's also the High Sheriff of South Yorkshire and a very busy woman.
Helena got the idea for Lost Chord when she was doing some voluntary work with Live Music Now, the scheme started by Yehudi Menuhin to take music to disadvantaged groups.
"I was fascinated by the effect of music, particularly on people who showed no reaction to normal speaking."
She was also doing voluntary work with the Alzheimer's Society and people with dementia.
"I thought that music could really make a difference to their lives. These are people who have lived normal lives but have had that cruelly stolen away from them. If you could somehow reach in and find the person who has become lost and give them something they are still able to do, you could help restore some of their self-esteem.
"Many of them have been left in care homes and forgotten about because relatives don't want to or find it too difficult to come to terms with what has happened to their loved one."
Helena was persuaded to apply for funding for her
idea to take professional musicians to care homes where there were dementia sufferers to try to stimulate areas of their brains that were still intact.
"We wanted to give them some confidence and self-esteem back, to try to give them a better quality of life, a life that has been stolen from them by this terrible disease."
Much to her surprise she was successful in her funding bid and set about developing a network of professional musicians to perform in, initially, 11 care homes in Rotherham on a monthly basis.
"There is no point just dropping in never to be seen again, we need to build up a relationship with the individuals and also the staff at the residential homes, we need them to keep up what we have started," says Helena.
Up until this year Helena spent most of her time dedicated to Lost Chord, interacting with dementia sufferers of all levels and training the volunteers.
"It is hard sometimes seeing how these individuals have become so withdrawn and isolated. But then you play them a piece of music and the light goes on in their eyes and they do things they haven't done for months and it's all worthwhile."
It is all a far cry from the beautiful surroundings of Grade 2* listed Slade Houghton Hall which she restored with her husband Franz Muller QC and where she brought up their two sons, Julian, 22, and Henry, 21. It is a stunning 17th century hall and Helena runs Lost Chord from a converted coach house which is now her office.
We are in her opulent sitting room surrounded by works of art and antiques. There are photographs everywhere. In one she is in her robes as High Sheriff of South Yorkshire.
It is a role which has reduced the amount of time she can dedicate to Lost Chord, but she admits that may not be a bad thing.
"There may be a time soon when I need to hand over," she says. "And who knows this might be it. Lost Chord has got to be able to run without me."
The post of High Sheriff, which is now held for a year, is one of the oldest secular posts in the country and dates back to Norman times. The role includes a special responsibility to the judiciary, hosting High Court judges when on circuit in Sheffield and looking after their welfare.
Helena, 59, is the first Catholic woman to hold the post and it is a role she takes very seriously, although it is one that she believes needs to change if it is to survive.
"The High Sheriff has to fund all the lunches for the judiciary and the other events, it can cost up to 30,000 out of your own pocket," she explains. "So when you are looking for someone to take on the role the danger is that you will look for the person who can afford to do it rather than the best person for the job. I think that is something that needs addressing if it is to survive."
It is hard to imagine this confident, opinionated woman being a shy, withdrawn child with a stammer. She was born in Barnsley and grew up in Thurgoland, the daughter of a Polish refugee.
She went to Penistone Grammar School where she can still vividly recall the terrible experience of stammering when being asked to read out loud.
She left school to take up an apprenticeship with the West Riding School Meals Service, going on to study at Sheffield Polytechnic and Thomas Danby College, Leeds, and worked for the former West Riding County Council from 1972 to 1985 moving to posts at Kirklees, Rotherham, North Yorkshire and Cumbria.
She married at 37 and started a family soon after.
She says she has always had a very strong social conscience, but the role of High Sheriff has helped her to realise what is, and what is not, happening in the communities. And 10 years on Lost Chord has expanded into most of South Yorkshire and North Nottinghamshire as well as satellite schemes in
London and Wales. Patrons include Lesley Garrett and Sir Cliff Richard.
But Helena is not satisfied.
"We are a charity and have to fight for every bit of funding along with all the other charities. I have a dream that Lost Chord will one day be available to all dementia sufferers in every care home in the UK."
www.lost-chord.org.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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