CHILDREN from a York school have performed a special musical thank you to cancer nurses.

Pupils at Yearsley Grove Primary visited the cancer ward at York Hospital as part of their Archbishop of York Young Leaders Award to perform unique renditions of well-known songs, rewritten to praise the work of the nurses.

The Young Leaders Award encourages children to ‘be the change they want to see’, and choose a charity to become ambassadors for. They chose Macmillan.

York Press:

Year 5 teacher Steve Dambrauskas said: “It’s wonderful to see such a generous and selfless idea come to fruition, directly from the children.

“Many of our kids’ families have been affected by cancer, so it is very brave and mature of them to face their feelings head on and acknowledge the wonderful job that all nurses and doctors have done for their loved ones. They are true ambassadors for our school and certainly being the change that they want to see.”

Pupils delivered baked treats to the nursing staff, and serenaded them at the hospital with specially-adapted versions of Abba’s Thank You For The Music and Bon Jovi’s Thank You For Loving Me.

For the ABBA song, the children changed the chorus to

Thank you for the nurses, the lives they’re touching

Thanks for all the joy you’re bringing.

Who can live without you, we ask in all honesty

What would life be?

Without a nurse or a doc, what are we?

So we say thank you to the nurses

For giving hope to me.

The Youth Trust works with more than 370 primary and secondary schools, and encourages young people to improve the lives of others and their communities through acts of service and volunteering.

The children organised the entire event, and there were tears in the eyes in some of the 20 or so nurses who came to watch.

Kate Denney is primary schools lead at The Archbishop of York Youth Trust, and said: “The children have blown me away with their hard work and maturity.

“It was absolutely brilliant; the children did a great job. I spoke to a representative from Macmillan and she was incredibly grateful for all they had done, and the nurses thought it was great too. The children have shown true leadership skills as well as compassionate hearts and have made a real difference. It’s children like this that give me a real hope in the future of our country.”