Tendring woman's charity single to help MIND and Women's Refuge

Jacque McAlpine explained how her profits from her single called “Find Your Love (MIND)” would be split equally between Colchester’s Women’s Refuge and the mental health MIND charity.

Jacque, who used to be teacher before moving back to the Tendring area, said she herself had suffered with mental health issues.

She said: “I am well now. I do things to make myself well.”

Jacque said both music and dance made her well, but while at school, she didn’t have a lot of time to do music as she was a captain in sport instead.

Jacque has been learning to read music with Graham Lewis-James from Allegra’s School of Music as well as piano and saxophone over the past nine months, and said of her mentor:

“He is empowering, he is never negative or doubts you," she said. "He has been a real force in pushing you forward.”

Empowering - Teacher Graham Lewis-James (Image: Graham Lewis-James)

Graham, who did a music degree at Colchester Institute helped Jacque use Unit One Studios to create the mix with other music professionals while Jacque wrote all the lyrics herself.

Jacque explained how she used to write poems from the age of 16 to 22 but then “stopped” with it being another “30-odd years” before she started again.

Writing has been “cathartic” for Jacque due to her own experience of domestic abuse, and she said: “After going through a dark period there is still some gold thread surrounding me and in my life.”

Jacque said how one of her lyrics referred to how out of everyone we meet good or bad, some people such as deceased parents or friends leave “golden traces” in the support they have given you.

From doing the first open night at the Ship, Jacque was asked to speak about domestic violence at The Frinton Literary Festival which as an “Essex girl” was like a “homecoming”.

Jacque said how when she did opens nights, she would recite something funny as well as “the gritty stuff” and added:

“You forget what it feels like to be confident”.