The church was full for the concert to mark Colin Cooper’s 26 years as organist. Extra chairs had to be put out to seat the large audience.

Praze-Hayle Male Voice Choir, conducted by Timothy Hosken, entertained with a variety of songs, ranging from songs from the shows to songs with a religious content. The accompanist was Margaret Bilkey.

Hannah Pascoe, the soprano soloist, was magnificent, her rich voice with its wide range was shown at its best with her variety of songs. Wendy Elliott read a variety of poetry. Her dramatic performances were truly memorable. As it is the harvest she gave a dramatic rendition of John Betjeman’s “Diary of a church mouse”, causing much laughter from the audience.

Mark Outten told of the work of the Children’s Hospice south West, especially Little Harbour near St Austell. Many of the congregation found his talk moving and there were some tears among the listeners.

Andrew Putt spoke of the work of the RNLI. He referred to the costs of running the service and told of the work of the Lizard Lifeboat crew.

Colin Cooper played an arrangement of part of the slow movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. This and the whole concert were dedicated to the memory of Melville Stephens. He was a great music lover and had sung with several local male voice choirs. This piece was chosen as it was his favourite piece of music.

As is usual in Mullion, the ladies of both church and chapel provided wonderful refreshments for the performers at the end of the evening.

There was no charge to enter the concert and a retiring collection raised £516.60, divided equally between the two charities.

The chairman was David Lugg, who amused the audience with his anecdotes. A very happy evening left the audience asking when the next concert will be.

Colin had been able to return to playing the organ after an eventful last year in which is right leg was amputated after an unsuccessful operation on his knee. He can play again because Ian Royston, a retired doctor who work for the charity Remap, designed and made a lift enabling Colin to reach the organ seat. He was introduced to Colin by David Angilley, Colin’s occupational therapist.