Healing through MUSIC

How one woman helps others with their health through the power of singing

- SERENA SHORES

When Dr Tina Blaber had a breakdown in 2005, partly due to having a hysterectomy at 30, which triggered an early menopause, she knew she had to make changes. She looked back to her childhood and realised that her early love of music had lain dormant for many years. Tina began a journey that would not only transform her life, but would lead to her helping many others in the most unexpected way, through the not-for-profit community group Playing for Cake.

'I left home at 17, married at 18 and had my daughter at 19,' says Tina, 56, from Norfolk. "I basically kept treading the same pathways through administration and IT-based jobs to pay the bills and keep a home together.

However, I became depressed, as back in the 1990s literally no one talked about the menopause,' Tina recalls. 'I thought I was going mad. I couldn't concentrate and was exhausted. I started thinking about who I was when I was little. What did I enjoy before "life got in the way"? I remembered I still had a guitar my mother bought me when I was 10. Then it hit me - I had loved playing music!'

Slowly but surely, the act of playing guitar and singing helped Tina get on her feet again. A friend encouraged her to attend some community folk nights her hands trembling when she first tried playing guitar in front of people.

She returned to work part-time and achieved an RSL Level 2 Diploma as a Performing Musician in 2007. Tina was also offered a place at The University of East Anglia to study Environmental Sciences, completing her studies with a doctorate in 2016.