A choir of patients and their families, hospice staff and volunteers are hoping to drive London to another Christmas number one, 12 months after Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir scored the top spot.

From April: Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust Choir signed to Justin Bieber's record label after beating him to Christmas number one with charity single

The London Hospices Choir features 27 singers from Demelza Hospice Care for Children in Eltham, 11 from Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice, and hundreds more from 16 other hospices across the capital.

The choir hopes their cover of Mike and the Mechanics’ 1991 hit, The Living Years, can match the success of the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir’s charity single A Bridge Over You, which edged out Justin Bieber to the top spot.

All the profits raised from the sale of the single will be divided between the 18 hospices involved – including the Princess Alice Hospice in Esher and St Raphael’s Hospice, Cheam.

Beverley Winn, Day Hospice Manager at Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice, said: “It’s been great meeting and working with people from other hospices.

“I hope people will get behind the choir and the single, so hospices across London can continue to provide care and support to those who need it.”

Evelyne Brink has a very personal reason for taking part – her son Tuffell has been helped by Shooting Star Chase, and then Demelza when they moved to Greenwich.

Four-year-old Tuffell has ultra-short gut syndrome, which means he cannot digest food and is fed overnight through a hickman line. The feeding disrupts his sleep, can have as many as eight nappy changes a night, and is very vulnerable to infection.

His mother Evelyne said: “Hospices have saved my sanity. It’s the only place you can go when you have a child with complex needs to get some respite.

“The work that hospices do is invaluable. You need a sanctuary where you can go and breathe and that’s what hospices do.”

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The Demelza Hospice Care Choir

The London Hospices Choir was brought together to mark the 125th anniversary of the Royal Trinity Hospice in Clapham Common and will be led by the man who sung the original, Paul Carrack.

Mr Carrack said: “The Living Years has been an important song for me for many years, but this is the version that means the most.

“Recording it with this incredibly special group of people for such a worthwhile cause has created some kind of magic.

"It’s a powerful and inspiring track, and I hope that everyone gets behind it this Christmas.”

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