Thanks to a grant from Thanet county councillors, Pilgrims Hospice can now provide music therapy sessions for patients and their carers.

A KCC Combined Members Grant for £1,059 allowed staff at the hospice to buy a digital piano and other musical instruments for staff and patients to use at small music workshops and larger group singing sessions.

Nurse Manager Vicky with new keyboard

The piano will also be used by professional musicians and societies who visit the hospice to perform to patients and carers.

Several clinical papers have been written on the benefits of music for palliative patients, concluding that music greatly increases the effectiveness of pain control and eases anxiety.

Through music therapy activities, individuals and their families will be supported and empowered to achieve positive mental health and live well until the very end of life.

Eventually it is hoped to set up a hospice choir and invite the local community to their performances, creating a public space that the community feels linked to.

The hospice will also raise its profile by putting on live musical events and use any funds raised to help more people in the Thanet area.