St Andrews Voices

St Andrews Voices, the people behind Scotland’s only festival of vocal and choral music, received £3000 for their adapted British Heart Foundation’s Singing for Lung Health workshops to support those recovering from Covid-19 across Fife, teaching key skills around breathing to help in the fight against long Covid.

Singing for Lung Health is a group-based art in health intervention with the goal of improving the quality of life of people with a chronic lung condition. With a proven track-record in supporting people with chronic lung conditions, the St Andrews Voices project will build on the existing breathing and wellbeing programme, adapting this specifically for people recovering from Covid-19 and experiencing long Covid symptoms such as breathlessness and associated anxiety.

Supported by the University’s Community Fund, workshops will be provided by British Lung Foundation trained practitioners and delivered entirely online, focussing on the retraining of breathing through singing.

By focussing on singing and breathing control rather than their respiratory limitations, Singing for Lung Health will allow participants to not only manage their breathlessness but also help improve quality of life.

St Andrews Voices Festival Director and Project Lead, Amanda MacLeod, said: “Our unique workshops will empower and better equip participants to deal with the breathlessness and anxiety associated with long Covid. The evidenced benefits of Singing for Lung Health and wellbeing not only  include improved breathing control but also allow those suffering from long Covid a focussed wellbeing intervention that distracts from breathlessness and provides much needed social participation, reducing feelings of isolation that many have suffered during the pandemic.”

For more information on the project visit the website.