Beckie, now working at Tapton Hall, explained her experiences with supporting wives and families during the the Afghanistan war. The audience all felt the poignancy of informing families of deaths in action.
During this time Catterick formed the Military WAG’s Choir. Gareth Malone inspired by this decided to include a Military Wives Choir in his television series (The Choir – Episode 4 ). Beckie found herself as the co-ordinator between the selected bases; Plymouth and Chivenor; both in Devon but at opposite sides of Dartmoor; and the production team. This motivated Chris Evans to start a campaign to win the Choir Number 1 Christmas record which was achieved with the single ‘Wherever you are’ written by Paul Mealor using extracts from letters between wives and their husbands who were serving in Afghanistan
The Choir then went from strength to strength performing at many occasions incuding the 2012 Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the RoyaL Gala Performance in addition to other awards.
The Choir members live up to their motto – Stronger Together- and know that the camaraderie between the them will last a lifetime.
More 2000 women (wives, mothers, sisters, daughters etc.) of military personnel now participate in a Military Wives Choir of which there are over 75 across the world.
Thanks to Beckie for the story of her involvement; it was touching, impressive and often amusing.