TWO Southend choirs have refused to allow lockdown restrictions to stop them raising funds for a pair of online health groups.

Westcliff-based The Mudlarks and the Feel Good Choir, in Leigh, have united – along with the Hackney Voices – thanks to the wonders of modern technology to release a new song.

Cleo Lane, who runs The Mudlarks and the Feel Good Choir, wrote the lockdown track Until We Meet Again, and 48 talented choir members got involved by singing on Zoom.

Mrs Lane is overjoyed with what has been produced despite the singers being unable to come together since lockdown restrictions were put in place in March.

She said: “The idea to create a song to raise funds grew organically.

“The song poured out of me during the first few days of lockdown, when I realised we were not going to be able to meet in our halls and would have to rely on Zoom, which is a very different experience.

“We all felt the difference. It was strange and sad, not to mention stressful having to learn how to get the best out of the new technology.

“I arranged the song into four parts and taught it to my three choirs online.

“Each singer had to sing their part along with a guide track and send it to our film editor Louis Foster-Bridgewood and hope for the best.

“We had never heard each other sing it together until the day the video came back so it was a lovely surprise and we are all very pleased with it.”

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Funds raised thanks to the song will be donated to Singing For Your Life and Singing For Breathing, which are affiliated to the British Lung Foundation.

Mrs Lane – who established The Mudlarks in 2013 and the Feel Good Choir two years ago – is pleased to be helping causes close to her heart.

She added: “It has been a brilliant project and I don’t think any of us imagined these online sessions would be so rewarding.

“I run several Singing For Lung health groups for people with chronic lung diseases and, when Covid-19 hit, we worked hard with families of our participants to get them online and are so glad we did.

“These participants suffer from a variety of complex health conditions, have all been shielding for over four months and have no idea when they will be able to see each other again.

“They are very dear to me. Without regular funding they have to raise their own funds to keep going and were the obvious choice when thinking of who we could use the song to benefit.”

To donate, visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/singingforbreathing.