People with dementia wowed friends and family by performing songs they’d written over the course of two months at a charity workshop.

Hackney Gazette: The group perform their songs at Chats Palace.The group perform their songs at Chats Palace. (Image: Archant)

For the last eight weeks, a group of 30 people have been going to Chats Palace in Brooksby’s Walk to work with professional musicians from the English Touring Opera and the Royal College of Music to write, compose and perform songs. And on Friday their loved ones got to see the end product at a recorded showcase.

The workshop – Turtle Song – is run by Turtle Key Arts, which works with other charities, occupational therapy teams and memory clinics to find the most isolated people in an area get them together.

Turtle was founded 10 years ago by CEO Charlotte Cunningham MBE due to a lack of provision.

She said: “When we started, there was relatively little provision of this kind: 10 years on I’m proud to say that we are part of a new and more positive ecology.”