The Music In Hospice Story

I’d like to share with you a story.

In 2019 a school teacher was admitted for end-of-life care in a local hospice in South Wales accompanied by her son, just 21 years old.

The son felt helpless, his mother was non-verbal and he was unable to communicate with the person he loved the most. On a solitary walk around the Hospice: he discovered a honky-tonk piano, tucked away in a corner and covered with blankets. He wheeled the piano to his mother’s bedside, opened the lid, sat down and began to play— the tune of ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ reverberating around the Hospice.

The school teacher’s name?

Susan Cavalli.

She was my Mum.

My name is Joe Cavalli-Price, the founder of Music in Hospices.

My story is the story of the 300,000 families supported by the Palliative Care system every year.

One transformative moment now reshaping the future of Palliative Care

When I opened that piano lid, sat down and played those first notes, I felt it. Shoulders relaxing, emotion release, breath steadying and for the first time in months felt like I could fully conenct with my Mum.

One transformative personal moment shared between us provided a ripple of comfort and connection across that small South Wales Hospice and has since suppported hundreds of families in the same way.