Singing songs in the key of life
A CHOIR of brave breast cancer survivors is aiming to win Ireland’s Got Talent and donate the cash prize to charity.
Sea of Change, an all-female, Dublin-based choir is the brainchild of Dee Featherstone, who is also the organiser of the largest charity skinny dip in Ireland, gathering 2,504 women together on a beach in Co. Wicklow and smashing a Guinness World record.
The choir, which is made up predominantly of cancer survivors and supporters delivered a poignant performance of This Is Me, the Oscar-winning theme tune from the Greatest Showman on last night’s opening show.
Viewers and judge Denise Van Outen were moved to tears when four of the choir, who had all undergone mastectomies, including the organiser Ms Featherstone, stripped off to their bare chests to prove that there is still life after cancer.
The 29-member choir received a standing ovation from both the judges and the audience at the Helix theatre in Dublin.
A tearful Denise then pressed her golden buzzer, guaranteeing the choir an immediate pass to May’s live shows.
‘It is about getting the message out there that breast cancer isn’t a life sentence,’ Ms Featherstone told the MoS.
‘We chose the song, This Is Me, to show that we may have had cancer, but we are still here and living with all our scars. We stripped off at the end because four of us have had mastectomies and we wanted to show that we are stronger than the disease.
Should the choir win the €50,000 cash prize, Ms Featherstone says they will all go away for a night to celebrate and then donate the rest to Aoibheann’s Pink Tie, the national children’s cancer charity.
‘We got to the live finals in March and we will have to come up with something bigger and better.’