Penny Bulkeley“I feel like I have some purpose again. I’m Helen – I’m not just someone’s mum or a housewife.”
Helen Davies, 54, from Mevagissey, Cornwall, said rediscovering music after a 28-year break had been “life-changing”.
The mother-of-three, who is part of a band called Hell Up, said music had given her something she felt “was missing” after she gave it up after a bike crash.
Another mother and a member of a different band, Lena Gillan, from Penzance, said joining Piecework had give her purpose, and added “most of the time women just turn invisible”.
Aza AdlamMs Davies said she got into music at the age of 20, but later suffered “horrendous stage fright”.
“It [the music] just stopped,” she said.
“It took 30 years for me to be able to get that love back. It’s really given me something back that was missing.”
Ms Davies said all of her children fled the nest by September 2023, and said re-discovering music had provided her with “fun”.
“You’ve got to just get back who you are,” she added.
“I feel like a teenager again, there is no part of me that feels like a 54-year-old woman. We don’t have to grow up.”
Ms Gillan, who runs a business and is a mum to a 13-year old, sings in a punk band called Piecework which formed in May 2025.
“With the child growing up a bit, you get that time a little bit back to yourself,” she said.
“Most of the time women just turn invisible. You want to do something that matters to you.”
