A LADIES choir is to celebrate its 10th anniversary with an evening of music and song.

The Keshet Ladies Choir was started up a decade ago in Prestwich by a group of busy, working mothers who simply enjoyed singing.

Now they have grown to 28 members with ladies from Manchester, London, Glasgow and Israel who regularly perform at community functions and events.

They represent a diverse range of ages and professions, including social work, speech therapy, teaching, denistry, journalism and opthalmics and sing in both English and Hebrew.

The choir was founded by Linda Beder, an office manager from Prestwich, who had once been a member of other local musical groups.

After a break away from performing to marry and raise her two children, Linda realised how much she missed the camaraderie of song.

She asked around her friends to see who might be interested in joining her for casual sing-a-longs at her home and a group of ten ladies shared her longing to sing.

One of the members of the group Joyce Khan, was a neighbour of King David Infant School teacher Kathryn Druce, who was an accomplished musician.

The group approached Kathryn to bring some structure to their singing and advance their repertoire, and the choir went from strength to strength.

With their reputation growing, the choir realised they needed a name and settled on Keshet, which is Hebrew for rainbow.

Linda said: "Since we are all so different - like the colours of the rainbow - yet blend together, we thought it would be perfect."

To mark their major milestone, the choir will perform a ladies-only concert at Philips Park Hall, in Whitefield on Wednesday.

The concert will be compered by raconteuse Marilyn Berg and will also feature a swing band.

Proceeds of the evening, which starts at 7.30pm, will go One Family UK and the Fed's Break for Carers fund.

For tickets contact 0161 795 2162.