From memory to melody - a musical exploration. This piece marks the moment I’ve decided to share my musical more openly. You can find more about Immense Year on Creative–LastandFound.co.uk

Theme: The Beauty

Quick Take:

Immense Year is one of my creative responses to dementia. What began as a play evolved into a musical, shaped by my work as a nurse and my experience of caring for my mother.
Creativity connects across borders. It’s been a real joy collaborating online and working with musicians and singers from all around the world.
Music has long been a lifeline for me. From childhood, through nursing, and now caring for Milly, music and humour have softened hard moments, lifted moods, and helped me care with warmth rather than frustration.

Immense Year

Immense Year, a musical, follows fictional characters Cece and her daughter Jane. Cece is living with dementia, which gently loosens her grip on the past, while Jane navigates the everyday realities of caring for her. Together, they find joy, laughter, and closeness - rediscovering a bond they both thought had been lost.

Tender, funny, and deeply rooted in real life, the musical draws on my experiences caring for Milly, working in the NHS as a nurse and manager, and twelve years supporting an MP. These experiences, along with witnessing the pressures on health and social care workers, shaped my perspective on the daily challenges, the messy moments and the small discoveries that bring warmth, connection and meaning.

By blending music, comedy, and emotional truth, Immense Year invites audiences to see dementia differently from the way it is usually depicted in adverts and news stories. It doesn’t shy away from the challenges, but reveals how memory loss can teach us to live in the now, to treasure simple feelings, and to find profound contentment in the present.

Why ‘Immense Year’?

The title is inspired by the denial in dementia. The real word, that Immense Year hints at, is surrounded by stigma, fear and denial - so the title speaks for what people are so often afraid to say out loud.

I like the play on the word dementia because it invites us to look again, something we have to keep doing when it comes to memory and perspective.

It also suggests the emotional vastness of a single year, as well as the weight of care.

From Page to Stage

It’s not stage-ready yet, but I remain optimistic! I’ve been told by a theatre director that the sad and depressing subject matter is unlikely to draw large audiences. In fact, this view only reinforced my reasons for setting up Last and Found: it’s worse to remain unaware than to seek understanding and the prevailing view of dementia as only about loss - rather than about what lasts and what is found - creates more fear than necessary.

I love working on Immense Year and hope that sharing it here will attract someone interested in taking it further, whether as a full musical or a touring operetta. In the meantime, I’m also developing a shorter, non-musical version for a writing competition.

Music as Medicine

Music has always played a big part in my life. Growing up, we didn’t have television until my mid-teens, so the record player and radio shaped our days - along with a healthy dose of comedy.

When I was nursing, humour and music lifted the atmosphere - for my patients and for me. Now, as a carer for Milly, who’s living with dementia, they’ve become essential. Singing lightens the mood, softens frustration, and helps me sound far less angry than I might actually feel!

Sing Across the Globe

A couple of years ago, at the time I started this project, AI wasn’t nearly as useful as it is now. I’m not a musician, so I needed some help.

Enter Fiverr - a brilliant platform connecting me with freelancers. I’ve been collaborating with a talented 21-year-old musical director from Argentina, Tomas Barrios. I write the lyrics, sing him my rough versions for context, and he does the clever musical work! Then I find professional singers - sometimes Broadway or West End performers who are earning money in between professional gigs- to bring the songs to life for as little as £25.

Find Out More

Immense Year brings music, humour, and heart to the story of dementia.

If you’d like to share your thoughts or explore collaboration, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Dementia can feel daunting, but I hope this musical helps open up conversation, lift a little fear, and celebrate the moments that truly matter.

Learn more at www.Creative–LastandFound.

Going Public, Musically!