Award-winning musician who featured on BBC dies aged 98 after dementia battle as family share tributes
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MUSICIAN Lorna Spode - who featured on the BBC - has died aged 98. The award-winning founder of the Lorna Spode Consult passed away after an ongoing battle with dementia. Her condition had meant she was too weak to stave off a chest infection before she died on January 10.
![[Black and white photo of a woman sitting at a piano with sheet music and trophies.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/NINTCHDBPICT000965976361.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Over 40 years, the Lorna Spode Consort was crowned BBC Radio Stoke’s Champion Choir and winners of the Blackpool Music Festival. Lorna is survived by husband Ken, who she married in 1953. The couple have two children, three grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Daughter Angela Machin told StokeonTrentLive: “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.".
She went on to say her mum came from a "humble" background but began playing piano aged five and quickly showed her musical talents. Lorna was self-taught and held music lessons before recruiting her pupils into her choir. Angela added: “She was a strong lady. She ruled the roost along with my dad, and she could be very opinionated. She was quite strict, but always fair with us. She knew how to get what she wanted out of you!".
