When Graham Stubbs founded the choir in 1975 aided by his wife Pat, I wonder if he realised what an enormous asset he was creating? Graham was musical director for 23 years during which time the choir’s reputation grew, their repertoire expanded and they travelled further afield to perform.

Over the past 42 years, they have done much to support local projects and charities. This year alone has seen the choir raise money for St. Johns Church and St. Mary’s Church in Tenby, as well as St. Andrew’s Church in Narberth. All of these venues provide perfect settings for the choir. They have also travelled to Fishguard where the choir entertained guests of the Fishguard and Goodwick Lions at the Bay Hotel. It was an enjoyable evening for everyone except for our poor coach driver who had to try and turn the coach around in a very packed car park.

Other concerts in Tenby have provided funds for the Red Cross, Stroke Association, Hope, St. John’s Ambulance Cymru, RNLI, Bloodwise and Air Ambulance Wales. Also at the Giltar Hotel money was raised for the Youth Cancer Trust.

A recent benefactor of the choir’s support was Chris Brace who has been raising money for Bloodwise. Chris persuaded Richard Graham, of Big Brums to sponsor an advertisement in the Tenby Observer to promote the concert and Paul and Denise Woods, of Pendine Caravans, provided a free holiday as a superb raffle prize. This combined support ensured an enjoyable and profitable evening and raised one of our highest takings of the year. This means that Chris has raised £30,000 for Bloodwise so far!

The choir will be travelling to Greater Malvern at the end of October to perform in a concert at Ledbury with Deborah Rose, a professional singer. We will be raising money for Acorns Children’s Hospice Acorns in the West Midlands.

If you are a charitable organisation or raising funds for a local project and would like the choir to support you, please contact our secretary, David Stewart-Walvin, at [email protected]. Next year’s programme will be decided in the near future.

So far the choir has raised just under £10,000 this year so the Ledbury concert will take us past this milestone. Once again, I would like to thank both locals and holidaymakers, without whom we could not have achieved this amount.

The choir will hold a joint concert with Ebbw Vale on Saturday, October 7, at St. Mary’s Church in Tenby. The concert starts at 8 pm with doors opening at 7.30 pm. This will be their last concert in Tenby for this season.

Di Mumford