Letter: The forgotten power of song

WITH REFERENCE to Blake Morrison's article ("Could these notes save your life?", 15 November), earlier this year I spent some time as

in-patient of a neurological ward undergoing a battery of tests. The boring hum of TV days and anxious, restless nights was intermittently soothed by the sound of a solitary, faltering singing voice. Inhibited by convention, I only felt able to join in silently.

Eventually I traced the voice to the side-room of a man whose ailment had reduced his everyday communication to grunts and flailing gesture.

One evening I remarked on the lovely voice to his visiting relatives. Their eyes filled up with tears.

LINDA SEWELL

Hartlepool, Cleveland