Special events to include a one hour Radio Years programme from £175.00

All senior living and healthcare organization fees will be contracted by negotiation.

Payment is requested on date of programme.

Cheques are to be made payable to 'Kym Veale'.

Please note any cancellation made within seven days of a confirmed booking will have a 50% cancellation fee.

Lyricist takes a trip down memory lane

West Sussex County Times, Friday 10th July 2009

A LYRICIST who works with the elderly in Storrington and Pulborough is hoping for volunteers to step forward and help. Kym Veale, 43, tours the Sussex care homes with her scheme Radio Years – a project which looks to jog the memory of the elderly through poetry and music. Over the years she has been amazed at the positive reaction
from those she works with, which she says is down to the inspirational music from the 30s, 40s and 50s she plays. “I have seen lots of wonderful things happen,” she said. “When I come out everybody is smiling and their confidence has been restored. “It draws people out of themselves. “The biggest reward at the end of the day is knowing I have made a difference. That is what Ms Veale started the project nine years ago as a pilot scheme after being inspired by a project in Horsham. She explained: “I just felt the music was a much more powerful way of sparking off memories in the elderly.”

In her show, she reads verses with clues in it as to which musician she is talking about before playing the music. Homes she attends include Hillside Lodge in Pulborough and Sussexdown in Storrington. The songs hail from the 30s, 40s and 50s era and include music by the greats such as Dame Gracie Fields, Dame Vera Lynn, Billy Cotton, and Glenn Miller. “They never seem to forget the songs,” she said. “For the last nine years I have seen our music legends run through the hearts of our people here.”

Ms Veale now hopes people with good knowledge about some of the legendary musicians from that era will come forward and support the scheme. “I would really like someone to come forward who has a lot of knowledge of the radio years and knows music of the 30s and 40s. “I can collect information off the internet but sometimes it is not accurate.”