Leicester Cathedral carol concerts go ahead after Covid tests donated

The choir members, photographed here at a rehearsal before the first carol service, all took lateral flow tests

A cathedral choir is performing together at its first service since the pandemic after a university donated spare coronavirus tests to the singers.

Leicester Cathedral's Choir is singing for three carol concerts on Sunday after members took lateral flow tests.

Loughborough University donated the kits as all students have now been tested before returning home.

David Monteith, dean of Leicester Cathedral, said: "It's a great gift to us."

He added: "We could never afford to do that ourselves and of course we don't have the kits.

"It was a gift that dropped from the heavens to us, just a bit like the Christmas story itself in a sense."

Prof Robert Allison, vice chancellor of the university, said: "We are delighted to put our Covid-testing facility to good use in the wider community as our university serves our city and county."

The services feature 35 choristers and socially distanced congregations, who cannot join in with the singing this year.

Chorister Cerys Rogers, 17, from Hamilton, said she was "very glad" the tests were donated.

"I have been singing in the choir for eight years so I have not enjoyed not being able to sing for nine or 10 months," she added.

Speaking after the first concert, she said it was "very surreal and different... but it felt completely right as soon as we started singing".

She added: "I feel very lucky to be able to do this again with the best people."

Cerys said in the run-up to the concert, there had been socially distanced rehearsals where they sat two metres apart and wore masks until they reached their places.

The cathedral said additional safety precautions were also in place, including singing screens purchased with the help of a grant from the Arts Council Covid Cultural Recovery Fund.