Victor Phillips discovered a new lease of life when he began singing at the age of 80 after the onset of dementia.

Victor now sings in two choirs near his home and has even encouraged other guests at the Melton Mowbray tea parties he attends to join in with a few tunes. 

Victor explained: “I really enjoy being with other people, and the tea parties are brilliant. The volunteers are unbelievable, they do all the hard work so we can have such a lovely time. It’s just great that people can be together like that.” 

Victor’s daughter, Louise, said: “Dad really benefits from the socialising as it really helps his memory. And the volunteers go out of their way to make sure he’s okay - they’ll do things like slip him a note to reassure him that someone will take him home after the tea party. 

“Sometimes they have a singsong, and the organiser has even asked my son Thomas if he’d like to go along and play the piano. They are all so thoughtful and kind.” 

Victor, 81, discovered a love for singing shortly after Marcia, his wife of nearly 60 years, died in 2022. Now he makes short films with Thomas, 22, called ‘Singing with Grandad’ which they post on YouTube with the aim of helping other people with dementia. 

Victor, who left the Army’s Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as a Staff Sergeant after 22 years’ service, finds singing helps with the flow of words. He enjoys singing cover versions of old favourites including, ‘Doing the Lambeth Walk’, ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’ and the more contemporary, ‘Sweet Caroline’. 

He and Louise are also members of the Silvertones Choir, which is part of the University of the Third Age, and their local United Reformed Church fun choir. Thomas sometimes plays piano in care homes and his grandad will join him.  

Victor and Marcia - who was pregnant with their third daughter Emma at the time - were living in Old Dalby, Leicestershire in 1980 when he won a top of the range, luxury Ford Cortina Ghia 2.3 Estate in a newspaper competition. But Victor didn’t keep it for long, selling it to raise the deposit for their first home in Melton Mowbray, where he still lives. 

“I don’t think I even drove it,” he said. “It was just obvious to me that we needed a home and that I should sell the car to make that happen. I must admit I was surprised to win but it worked out well.” 

After leaving the Army, Victor, who has run marathons in The Potteries and London in around three-and-a-half hours, spent several years in the civil service before joining companies Hunting Aviation and Babcock DS, where he worked on flight simulators at RAF Cranwell and RAF Cottesmore, and enjoyed watching the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows, fly nearby.