A REMARKABLE group of ladies who sang their hearts out for more than 40 years reunited for one last time.

The Patrician Singers was started by a group of friends who wanted to use their voices to entertain and spread joy.

Over the years they sang in nursing homes, community halls and local churches time and again.

They staged many concerts at St Ninian’s in Gourock, raised money for good causes like the Ardgowan Hospice Butterfly Project and went wherever they were needed.

Most of all they shared a camaraderie with their audiences and each other, but now the singers have decided it’s time to call it a day.

They played themselves out one last time with their swansong, Vera Lynn’s war time classic ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

Long-time member Anne Scott, who joined in 1979, said: “We are all getting older and it was just time.

“We loved singing the older songs to the folks in the nursing homes.

“I would always think to myself ‘my mum would love this’ and then I soon found I was catching up with my mother.”

The Patrician Singers group was founded by a group of close friends, including Margaret Gaffney, Mary Stodter and Bridie Docherty.

They were helped by St Ninian’s Church singer Sandra Huthwaite

She said: “I am very proud to have been associated with the Patrician Singers and they should be very proud of themselves.”

Some of the singers recently met to reminisce after more than 40 years together.

Anne added: “We had some great times with each other.”

Member Rita Harkness added: “We would go into a nursing home and the elderly people would be sitting there with their heads down but when we started singing they would come to life.”

St Ninian’s Church hall reverberated to the sound of the singers as they joined together for one last chorus — Anne Scott, Rita Harkness, Christine Cairns, Margaret Cook, Bridie McLelland, Betty Coyle, Queenie McCallion, Margaret Keogh and Christine Breslin plus Joanne Kelly, who helped out with the group.

They were joined by pianist Sheona Ritchie, Anne Houlihan and Eleanor Downie.