TICKETS are now on sale for a Hunts Post charity concert by the Caldicot Male Voice Choir – the acclaimed choir who sang at the Queen s golden jubilee celebrations at Buckingham Palace. The choir, who are travelling from Wales and giving their services fo

TICKETS are now on sale for a Hunts Post charity concert by the Caldicot Male Voice Choir - the acclaimed choir who sang at the Queen's golden jubilee celebrations at Buckingham Palace.

The choir, who are travelling from Wales and giving their services for free, will perform at Hinchingbrooke Performing Arts Centre in Huntingdon on Saturday, November 15.

They will be raising money for The Hunts Post New Life Appeal for maternity services at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, including the special care baby unit.

The appeal aims to raise £70,000 for the hospital. Fundraising was launched in January and so far, with your help we have handed over £16,000 to the units.

The Caldicot choir has sung around the world. It was at the Three Tenors Concert at Wembley Stadium in 1996 and has performed across America, Canada and Europe.

The choir even brushed shoulders with the American president, George W Bush, on one tour.

For this concert, the soloist will be soprano Faye Hart, from Grafham Water, whose three-year-old twins were treated in Hinchingbrooke's special care baby unit.

She will sing well-known arias, including One Fine Day from Madam Butterfly, Oh My Beloved Father and the laughing song from Die Fledermaus. In the second half, she will sing pieces by Ivor Novello and songs by Strauss and the Welsh song, Once Again My Beloved Wales.

The choir's programme will mix modern numbers such as Let It Be Me and Wind Beneath My Wings with popular classics. In the interval, Bedford School pupil, Stephen Wilkinson will play the harp.

The choir has been invited to Huntingdon, for the second time by David Watkins, 86, from Little Paxton, who sang with them for 33 years and was the choir secretary who first got them bookings abroad.

He moved from Monmouthshire to Huntingdonshire in 1999 when his late wife Margaret became ill and his daughter Rhian, a sister at Hinchingbrooke's special care baby unit, and son-in-law Gary wanted the couple to live with them.

By coincidence, the first accompanist of the choir when it was set up in 1963 was Roy Nancekievill, father of Keith Nancekievill, head teacher of Hinchingbrooke School.

Mr Watkins, who worked in the mines for 30 years before moving into steel, put on his first concert in Huntingdonshire two years ago to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support after his of 50 years wife, Margaret, died on Christmas Day 2003. He wanted to thank the nurses who had looked after her at the Woodlands Centre at Hinchingbrooke. That concert, in October 2006, raised £4,000.

When he read about the New Life Appeal in The Hunts Post in January, he said it was an ideal reason to stage another concert.

He said: "The first concert was so successful that I wanted to put on another charity concert and when I read about the New Life Appeal in The Hunts Post - I thought, this is it!"

INFORMATION: The concert starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are £12 and £10 concessions available from The Hunts Post, 30 High Street, Huntingdon, PE29 3TB or call David Watkins on 01480 219695.

Captions: FIRST CHOIR STANDING: The Caldicot Male Voice Choir.

INSPIRATION FOR A CONCERT: David Watkins.

SPECIAL SONGS FOR SPECIAL CARE: Faye Hart with twins, Jason and Emily and baby Grace born in November. Picture: HELEN DRAKE.