FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
05/04/17
World Premiere Beatboxing without a voice box, London, UK.
Shout at Cancer and UCL proudly announce the FREE event, featuring MarvRadio (Beatboxer), La Verne Williams (Opera Singer) and our participants who had their voice box surgically removed (Laryngectomy). We will be performing together with a number of young people from East London.
Saturday 8 April 2017, 4-5 pm, Timber Lodge Café – 1A Honour Lea Avenue- Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London E20 1DY
Shout at Cancer is a newly founded charity dedicated to helping people rebuild their lives after laryngectomy – the surgical removal of the voice box, usually performed in patients with highly developed stages of throat cancer. The psychosocial impact of losing the voice is significant, affecting a person's professional and social life in a devastating way. It should be no surprise that patients often fall prey to social isolation and depression.
The changes following treatment to the structures involved in phonation introduce substantial challenges for cancer patients and can be experienced in speech after laryngectomy, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy.
Regular exercise is important in controlling these structures and keeping them supple. It is however a difficult task for a speech therapist to keep the patient engaged and motivated to practise.
Together with MarvRadio, three-time UK beatboxing champion, we have developed a repertoire of basic beatbox techniques to create a wide variety of exercises that are fun, interactive and maximize the use of the structures important in voicing.
With the support of UCL Culture and Atos Medical we have organised the world premiere of a beatboxing group of participants who have had a laryngectomy.
Organisers:
Reader in Technology, Education, and Music at University College London (UCL), Dr. Evangelos Himonides:
"Via integrated beat boxing sessions open for youth and laryngectomy patients, we aim to engage participants, educate them, and create a stimulating and interactive environment for collaborative artistic performance between cancer patients, and young people, who will be introduced to our research in an accessible and creative way. I am particularly excited about the support that we have received from UCL Culture, in order to organise this event at the heart of the Olympic Village, and within a wider geographical location that is reportedly above average statistics for throat cancer referals. UCL aims to play a key role in the rejuvenation of the wider area, with UCL East, expected to open in 2018, being envisaged as a radical new model of how a university campus can be embedded in the local community and with businesses, as well as providing world-leading research, education, entrepreneurship and innovation."
Director of Shout at Cancer and Doctor with special interest in voice pathology, medical lead and research coordinator Dr. Thomas Moors:
"There's more music in your voice than you think, for this occasion we've used beatbox techniques to explore your voice and teach you how to control it better. Thanks to our techniques you'll be able express yourself and your emotions easier, you'll be able to avoid a lot of misunderstandings."
Our aim is to improve the voice and quality of life after laryngectomy, to build confidence and help people reintegrate into society. We use workshops that incorporate breathing, singing and acting techniques with public performances and collaboration with musicians, singers and actors.
Our goal is simply to help give a voice back to every person who has had it taken away by cancer.
Our slogan is: "Together we shout louder"
Thanks to pilot studies at Royal Preston Hospital, Addenbrookes Hospital Cambridge and the University Hospital in Brussels (St-Pierre) we have been able to research and implement practices that vastly improve the vocal outcome and quality of life.
The charity, led by Dr Thomas Moors has workshops running in London, Cambridge, Preston and soon we'll start groups in Birmingham, Norwich and Plymouth.
The charity's aims are:
(1) the relief of persons suffering from head and neck cancer by providing help and support to relieve affective symptoms and to improve voice rehabilitation through the provision of supported and quantifiable rehabilitation techniques involving participation in music, art and drama.
(2) the advancement of education of the public, health professionals and persons affected by throat cancer and laryngectomy by providing a forum to discuss and respond to issues of interest and concerns.
(3) to promote research in head and neck cancer and the relationship between the arts and rehabilitation and disseminating the useful results for the public benefit.
We are happy discuss our work further and we would be grateful if you could help us promote the event and report on the charities work.
To Speak to Dr Evangelos Himonides, email e.himonides@ucl.ac.uk
To speak to Dr Thomas Moors, tel 07879 392005,
Notes:
March 2017 Shout at Cancer and Dr Thomas Moors awarded by PM Theresa May, with the Points of Light Award.
December 2016 BBC News Look East - Norwich Christmas Concert
November 2016 The Lancet Prize for Shout at Cancer, Dr D maraschino and Dr Thomas Moors, awarded at the Global health Film Festival, Barbican, London.
The Guardian, 7th Sept 2016, 248.000 views
Documentary (6 min, Production NuNam: The comeback after throat cancer)
Inspirational song for the paralympians 2016:
Concert on invitation by the Belgian Ambassador, his excellency Mr Guy Trouveroy, at the Belgian Embassy London – 5th July 2016.
Dr. Thomas Moors and a member of the Laryngectomy Choir were interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b064sx5h
