HELEN WILCOCK firmly believes that singing has the power to heal.

She joined Huddersfield’s Rock Choir last summer when her life was at a low ebb and quickly found that the weekly practice sessions left her “smiling on the inside.”

She’d been through the traumatic experience of divorce, nursed her mum through a serious illness and had lost her father – but then discovered that singing helped her to feel happy once more.

“I love singing, it uplifts me,” she said. “It releases tensions, pent up emotions and frustrations and gives me the rare opportunity to make a noise as loud as I am physically able.

“It makes me laugh and it makes me cry. There aren’t many other opportunities that give you permission to do that in public.”

Helen, 45, a paediatric nurse, was so moved by her experience with the Rock Choir that she persuaded her 67-year-old mum Wendy to come along to a session.

Wendy, whose husband Dennis died in 2010, said: “I did have to be persuaded because I hadn’t come to terms with who I was and going out on my own.”

The couple had been together since she was a teenager.

But Wendy, who underwent a kidney transplant in 2010, found that choral singing gave her respite from the grief. It even helped her to recover her physical strength.

She said: “Because I had been ill I wasn’t very fit and at first I couldn’t do the routines that go with the songs and I had to sit down a lot.

“But now I can. It has been very therapeutic for me.”

Helen and Wendy have been through a lot in recent years.

Their troubles began in 2006 when Helen’s marriage broke down and she moved, with her toddler daughter Charlotte, now seven, from the Midlands to be near her parents.

On the day she was travelling up the M1 to start a new life in Holmfirth her mum was being taken by ambulance to St James’ Hospital in Leeds, suffering from kidney failure.

“I arrived to an empty house and a note saying that my mum was in hospital,” said Helen.

Wendy, a retired primary school teacher, had to endure kidney dialysis for four years while waiting for a transplant.

Then just months after the operation the family discovered that Helen’s father had terminal cancer.

Helen said: “These events left my mum a shadow of her former self. In her own words she had become a ‘little old lady’ who was wobbly and a bit breathless.”

However, Rock Choir has given both women a new lease of life.

Wendy is one of the group’s oldest members but says she feels completely at home.

“It’s a very sociable choir,” said Helen. “We all get on really well and have a good laugh. We even go to the pub afterwards because we’re too excited to go straight home to sleep.”

Huddersfield Rock Choir is part of a network of more than 260 choirs around the UK and is led by music graduate and pianist Elliot Sutcliffe.

He is one of 57 Rock Choir leaders employed by the national organisation which was founded in 2005 by musician and singer Caroline Redman.

Wendy says Elliot is “wonderful.”

“He explains everything so well,’’ she said. “You don’t need to read music as he can talk you through it. He is inspirational.”

Rock Choir has more than 16,000 members and is the largest amateur choir in the UK.

Part of the emerging choir phenomenon, which led to television series such as The Choir and The Choir that Rocks, Rock Choir is aimed at anyone over 18 who wants to sing.

There are no auditions – enthusiasm is the only requirement.

Elliot, 23, studied popular music recording at Huddersfield University and knew he wanted to work in the music industry from an early age.

A talented pianist, he trained with Rock Choir last year before launching choirs in Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Halifax and Bradford.

Huddersfield is his biggest choir with around 70 singers in total.

“I have been interested in singing all my life,” said Elliot. “I wanted to become a composer. When I first saw Rock Choir I didn’t really know what it was because it was mainly in the south of England but when I went for my audition to be a leader I fell in love with everything about it.”

Rock Choirs sing mainly pop, gospel and Motown classics from music chosen and arranged by founder Caroline.

The songs are selected for their uplifting or emotional qualities. Something Inside So Strong and Walking On Broken Glass are two examples. Members can download lyrics from the Rock Choir website.

At the moment Rock Choir membership in this area is predominantly female, although a few women bring along partners and husbands. Elliot would love to see more men joining in the fun.

“It can be a real stress buster,” he said.

Choristers pay £25 a month to cover the costs of hiring rehearsal space and leaders. Huddersfield’s choir meets weekly at Greenhead College.

Later this month more than 450 Rock Choir members from Huddersfield and other parts of Yorkshire will be converging in Wakefield for a ‘Big Sing’ – a concert to raise funds for the national charity Missing People.

The event, on Wednesday, November 21, will be attended by Rock Choir founder Caroline.

Huddersfield choristers will also be performing on December 1 at the switching on of Slaithwaite’s Christmas lights.

SINGING really is good for us.

Professor Graham Welch, Chair of Music Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, has studied developmental and medical aspects of singing for 30 years.

He said: “The health benefits of singing are both physical and psychological.

“Singing has physical benefits because it is an aerobic activity that increases oxygenation in the blood stream and exercises major muscle groups in the upper body, even when sitting.

“Singing has psychological benefits because of its normally positive effect in reducing stress levels through the action of the endocrine system, which is linked to our sense of emotional well-being.

“Psychological benefits are also evident when people sing together as well as alone because of the increased sense of community, belonging and shared endeavour.”