Newcastle Hospital Singers
Newcastle Hospitals Singers (formerly GNCH Singers) is a singing group for Newcastle Hospital Trust staff, volunteers and former staff. Led by community musician, Laura Reavley, the group meet every week at the RVI chapel to sing together for fun and to support wellbeing and regularly perform across Newcastle Hospitals.
Singing together has many proven health and wellbeing benefits from lowering cortisol and relieving stress, strengthening our immune systems, as well as improving breathing and lung capacity. The Singers welcome all voices and singing abilities; they sing a bit of everything from popular songs, folk, musicals, Geordie classics to feel-good tunes.
Meet the musician
Laura Reavley is a community musician based in the North East, working in music facilitation within community and educational settings. Laura delivers ‘singing for health & wellbeing’ programmes for staff groups, hospital inpatients, adults with Dementia, and for families with children under five.
Laura previously worked at the Glasshouse across multiple learning and participation programmes, facilitating a wide variety of participatory music activities and co-leading training in Early Years Music and SEND music activity.
Laura also teaches Piano and Woodwind, and is Musical Director at Sax on the Tyne, a community Saxophone band based in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Singing for Lung Health
Newcastle Singing for Lung Health is a singing programme designed for people with long-term respiratory and lung conditions across Newcastle. We host 12-week singing programmes within community settings and one-off sessions for community support groups.
Sessions support participants to practice simple and fun vocal exercises and sing together to improve respiratory strength; learn ways to manage symptoms of breathlessness; and feel part of a supportive community. Singing together in a group is a great way to improve physical health and emotional wellbeing; it has been proven to have benefits such as relieving stress, anxiety and strengthening our immune systems.
Newcastle Singing for Lung Health is led by local singer-songwriter, Liz Corney, a trained Singing for Lung Health practitioner.
If you or a patient would like to get involved with Newcastle Singing for Lung Health please register your interest.
Meet the musician
Liz Corney is a musician, songwriter and facilitator from the North East of England delivering projects and commissions with New Writing North, Equal Arts and We Make Culture.
Her work includes composing music for WhippetUp CIC and their touring puppet shows, and the Care Home Choir; the songs for which were performed by the Northern Sinfonia Chorus. She has written music with prisoners from HMP Frankland and devised and lead Generators We Create songwriting program, among various other projects.
As a performer Liz sings with The Cornshed Sisters, who have supported Elbow and The Proclaimers, and played keys for Field Music on their tours in the UK, Europe and the US as well as major UK festivals. In October 2024, Liz released her latest solo album, We Need New Eyes.
Learn moreStaff Art Club printmaking workshops
This autumn, Staff Art Club is back and hosting a new series of creative workshops for Newcastle Hospitals Trust staff.
Join us to explore various printmaking techniques including lino relief printing, etching and screen printing; the sessions will support staff to realise their own creative ideas through printmaking. We’re excited to be working with printmaking extraordinaries, NewBridge Print Studio to deliver the workshops, including a screen-printing session at their print studio.
Tues 20th Oct, 5:15-7pm
Peacock Hall, RVI
Using waste materials and kitchen utensils to imitate the etching printmaking process. A DIY approach to home printing fine-lined prints with tone and texture. Each participant will leave with a series of editioned print.
Design: Tues 10th Nov, 5-7pm at Peacock Hall, RVI
Printing: Sat 28th Nov, 10am-1pm at NewBridge Print Studio, NE2 1AL
A 2-part workshop and introduction to the screen-printing process. In session 1 we will design and prepare our images and find out the basic principles of screen printing. In session 2, we will work at Newbridge Print Studio for a hands-on printing process.
The Big Read 2026
We’re bringing The Big Read to Newcastle Hospitals!
Thousands of people across the North East are reading this year’s Big Read to celebrate the National Year of Reading, and Newcastle Hospitals Charity is part of it.
We are delighted to announce that the Sunday Times number one bestselling mystery novel The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley is our 2026 Big Read. Our free copies available for Newcastle Hospitals staff and patients have been allocated, but there’s still plenty of ways to be involved.
We’ll also be hosting a range of Big Read activities to get everyone involved in reading, writing and talking about books this autumn in partnership with New Writing North. This will include a writing workshop, a book club and a creative writing booklet for you to hone your own writing skills.
Pick up your Big Read copy and get reading this autumn!
Tuesday 27 October 6-7pm Online via teams.
Join our free online reading group for The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley. Whether you’ve finished it or only just started, come and share what you made of the characters, the twists and who you suspected.
Book a placeTuesday 3 November 5-7pm Online via teams.
Have you ever wondered about writing crime? Come to this interactive, fun session and learn the tips and tricks that will get your story off to a flying start, taking inspiration from Lucy Foley’s The Hunting Party.
Book a place