Wigan charity team get dancing in their own Amarillo video

Members of a charity supporting vulnerable people pulled on their dancing shoes and filmed a music video to maintain connections during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The team at My Life, which provides education, health and social care, were inspired by Peter Kay's (Is This The Way To) Amarillo video after a new version was made as part of fund-raising TV show The Big Night In.

They decided to get to work on making their own video for the song.

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Caroline Tomlinson, CEO of Standish-based My Life, said: "Our mantra is to create a community where everyone belongs and The Big Night In Peter Kay Amarillo video idea inspired us to do something that really would help to maintain essential connections with all of the community. Being on TV wasn’t important, it was ensuring people keep connected during this period of lockdown.

People dancing in the videoPeople dancing in the video
People dancing in the video

"We managed to send the message out to people we support and our fabulous key worker employees to contribute, and within an hour we had some fabulous footage.

"The real work started when Nyle Yates, our whizz at technology, currently working from home, put the video together and we managed to launch it on social media. The response has been overwhelming."

She received a phone call from a woman who said she woke up feeling down, but felt "amazing" after watching the video.

Someone else told her the video was "fabulous".

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Caroline said: "We have been overwhelmed with comments, shares and so many people coming (virtually) to be part of the My Life family. It has really helped everyone, as entering into week five of lockdown is becoming difficult for many people we know.

"The staff team have been working hard and many are working from home or people's own homes and are doing a brilliant job and we thought everyone needed to have a laugh and this can become all too consuming.

"We hope you enjoy our version of Amarillo and watch out because there is more to come!!"

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