Abbey Davies is 23 and has always wanted to follow her family’s tradition of performing in the West End. However when she was 22-months-old she contracted meningitis that left her brain-damaged and with learning disabilities.
Thanks to the efforts of David Stanley, who founded the Essex-based Music Man Project, Abbey joined 200 adults, children and special-school pupils on the stage of the London Palladium in what is believed to be the first performance of its kind in a West End theatre.
Running music education specifically for people with learning disabilities, Stanley has been planning this performance for years, giving people like Abbey the chance to sing somewhere she could previously only dream about.
“She loves her music – it’s the one thing she’s always focussed on” says Abbey’s mum Coral Davies. “Her father performed at the Palladium and our son Kane also performed at the Palladium” and now Abbey is getting that chance too.
“When I grow I want to be a star” says Abbey.
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