Behind the mask

Published 6 March 2025 More in

“This is a special group for each of us” – Bernadette.

It can be hard to quantify precisely what a single art project can achieve. Sit down and talk to the people involved in the latest work of the St Christopher’s Create & Chat group, and its success becomes apparent.

The photographic portraits splendidly hung on the walls of the hospice’s consultation hallway capture the group’s 16 members and the masks they created over an eight-week period.

Some are barely visible behind their masks; others hold theirs proudly to the side, to show their face.

Members of the group participating in the Who’s Behind the Mask? Exhibition revealed finding inner talents they’d previously never accessed – in their more than 80 year lives.

One said it had given her a purpose, while it provided another a means of expressing the spread of her cancer.

The photographs themselves have provided their subjects, the photographers, St Christopher’s and The BRIT School, with a tangible, timeless and lasting record of an endeavour meaningful for all, albeit in very different ways.

The mask making idea was Wei Yee Chung’s. An artist herself, from Beckenham, Wei Yee joined the group a year ago, having been referred to the hospice in 2023 with breast cancer.

“I’ve made art throughout my life using different media,” says Wei Yee, whose hands are busy making an origami bird as she speaks. “I like that I can give ideas and we can all share ideas. Not everyone in the group has had that much creativity in their lives so I can contribute to that.”

Having worked as an artist in community groups, Wei Yee had run mask making projects before and thought the idea could work well with her Create & Chat colleagues.

“It’s partly about Carnival and partly about the different identities we have. You can hide behind a mask, and it can be a decorative thing.

“Mine was very organic and I wasn’t sure what the design was going to be. I made it look a bit like a pinata but with a tree coming out of the head. My cancer has spread everywhere, including my brain so it is a way of expressing that.”

“I was very proud walking down that corridor.”

Fellow group member Bernadette Murray falls into the category Wei Yee described – having had very little creativity in her life. This project has been transformational for her.

“I saw the advertisement for Create & Chat. Craft I am no good at, I thought, chatting I can do. I never learned to knit and when I had sewing lessons they were not successful.

“I have found a creative part of me I never realised I had, especially with the mask and I got quite attached to it. I think everyone took possession of their own idea. I was very happy to follow it through and found more ideas coming to me – so there must be something creative there!”

For Bernadette, 82, Create & Chat is the first hospice service she’s accessed and she’s just realising the impact it’s having on her.

“I’ve been incredibly well looked after through the whole process of my breast and bone cancer but when I wasn’t able to come to the group at the start of the year, I then found myself really looking forward to seeing everyone and realised how much I missed it. This is a special group for each of us. We could be any group of old friends because it’s not about our health issues. That’s a lot to do with the volunteers and the environment which is a bright and cheerful place.”

In the two years since her referral, Wei Yee has attended singing with breathlessness sessions and received massage and acupuncture, as well as being a regular and active member of Create & Chat.

“Overall, my experience of St Christopher’s has been fantastic,” she adds. “I just feel very lucky to be able to come here and it gives me something regular to look forward to.”

What of the people behind the camera? The photographs were the work of three Art and Design students at The BRIT School in Croydon which has a been a long-term community collaborator of St Christopher’s.

For Jizel and Liberty, two of the students who attended the opening of the exhibition, the project was an eye-opening and formative experience given that they’d never been to a hospice or really known what it was like.

“I have found a creative part of me I never realised I had.”

“I loved coming here for the first time and doing a shoot with so many different people,” said Liberty. “It was nice being in a new and slightly uncomfortable environment where all the people were so lovely.”

For Jizel, the timing couldn’t have been better. After admiring her own work on the hospice walls, she was off for a university interview for a photography course.

“I was very proud walking down that corridor. It’s very nice to see your own work and how they’ve been displayed is great. I am really happy with it.”

Sam Lucas, another member of our Create and Chat group, also wrote about her experience in a recent issue of our Connect magazine. Read her article here.