At the last rehearsal before their summer break, Hampshire and Surrey Hills Men’s Choir presented the donations from their summer concert to representatives of Camberley Care.

Choir chairman Peter Viveash presented donations of more than £800 with Gift Aid to Camberley Care chairman Tony Bovenkamp and fundraising trustee Linda Christopher.

The concert at the end of June was at High Cross Church in Camberley and was the first summer concert conducted by musical director Philip Viveash-Brainch, assisted by deputy conductor James Harrison, with accompaniment from Charlotte Hobbs.

In front of a packed audience, master of ceremonies Sue Shoveller introduced a programme including Speed Your Journey, With A Voice Of Singing, Yesterday, Working Man, What Would I Do Without My Music, Londonderry Air, When The Saints Go Marching In, A Cole Porter Medley, Puttin’ On The Ritz, Silent Worship and Wellerman.

An innovation was the "choral hug" - a rendition of Down To The River To Pray sung with the choir standing around the audience.

Philip taught the audience to sing This Old Freedom Train in the round while the collection was made for Camberley Care.

The choir welcomed 13 new members as a result of its A Pie, A Pint and A Song recruitment event. With six weeks of tuition they joined in a great number of the items and contributed to the overall improved quality of the sound and enjoyment for the audience.

Guest performers Cactus Brass treated the audience to two sets of three items, including an ABBA medley.

Making the donation, Peter Viveash said: “The service that Camberley Care has been providing for 50 years is a vital resource for those in the area who are elderly or not so mobile, so we are very happy to be able to support them.”

Tony Bovenkamp said Camberley Care was always under pressure to find extra funding and volunteers. He added that the donation would make a real difference to the lives of the elderly and vulnerable in the area, and on their behalf he expressed his gratitude to everyone involved.

Hampshire and Surrey Hills Men’s Choir are a group of men from north Hampshire and west Surrey who love to sing.

They enjoy entertaining their audiences, raising money for local charities, and having fun while doing it.

The choir was set up in 1960 to compete in the Aldershot Music Festival, and as it was made up of volunteers from many backgrounds, with an odd one from here and an odd one from there, it was originally named the Odd Fellows Male Voice Choir.

Now it recruits and performs in a wider area, it has been renamed the Hampshire and Surrey Hills Men’s Choir.

It organises two major concerts per year, one in the summer and one near Christmas, selecting a local charity to support and including guest performers.

Throughout the rest of the year the choir sings in village halls, theatres and churches across Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire, with other choirs outside the area, and sometimes at the Royal Albert Hall in a massed choir concert. Singers do not need experience to join.

The music it sings includes classical anthems, show tunes and popular songs of the 20th and 21st centuries, selected to suit a variety of tastes and to be fun and enjoyable for singers and audience.