Award-winning BBC musician Lorna Spode dies after tragic dementia battle
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Musician Lorna Spode has died at the age of 98. The award-winning star and founder of the Lorna Spode Consult died following an ongoing battle with dementia. Over 40 years, the Lorna Spode Consult was crowned BBC Radio Stoke’s Champion Choir and winners of the Blackpool Music Festival. Due to her dementia diagnosis, Lorna was too weak to stave off a chest infection.
She died on January 10 shortly before her 99th birthday and is survived by her husband Ken, who she married in 1953. Ken will turn 100 in March and the pair celebrated their 71st wedding anniversary in June last year. The couple have two children, three grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Lorna was a self-taught musician and held lessons before recruiting pupils to her choir. Her funeral will be held later this month.
Lorna's daughter paid tribute to the star as she opened up on the devastating loss and shared an insight into her life. Angela said: “She got dementia just when everything had settled down with Covid. She realised she was forgetting things. After the diagnosis she started to decline quite quickly really.
“It’s been hard, but in a way we were ready for it. We’ve been seeing mum every day and we’ve seen her rapid decline. For a couple of weeks before, she didn’t know anyone." Angela explained her mum came from a "humble" background. Lorna began playing the piano from the age of five and quickly discovered her hidden talent.
She was able to go up the grades quickly and started her professional music career by doing singing lessons at her house. Lorna had strict rules for who was able to join her choir as Angela confessed "if you weren’t any good, you wouldn’t get in!" The musician is well-known in the Stoke-on-Trent area, with many aware of the Lorna Spode Consort.
