“I look at my role as being a friend of Canberra Hospital, I can bring some pleasure and happiness sometimes to people who are really in difficult times in their lives.”
With backing music from a Bluetooth speaker, Sayer croons his way around the cancer wards, making a human connection with everyone he comes across.
Canberra Region Cancer Centre Operations Manager Caroline McIntyre says Sayer’s visits are typically kept a surprise for patients and staff.
“He’s always come in so discreetly,” she says.
“Normally it’s just very quiet, he comes up in the back lift and says hello to literally everybody.
“Some of them are doing it tough, and to have a little bit of joy and light – it really gives them a lift.
“What makes me happy is to see people getting chemo on their feet dancing.”
Jamming with Jimi Hendrix, Countdown and the Troubadour
Originally a graphic designer by trade, English-born Leo Sayer rose to pop prominence in London in the late 1960s, as a singer-songwriter – and was soon adopted by Australia as an honorary son after his first tour here in 1974.
He went on to become an Australian citizen in 2009.
Sayer was a regular on ABC TV’s Countdown during the 70s and 80s, performing chart-toppers like “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”, “When I Need You”, “More Than I Could Say” and “Orchard Road”.
He blushingly admits they were wild days – when he didn’t always live up to his “good-guy” public persona.
“It was mad, I mean, Top of the Pops in England, Countdown over here,” he says.
“You were mobbed by the fans, I remember being dragged out of a limousine the first tour that I came here, and then speaking to crazy people like Molly Meldrum on TV and trying to sort of like take it all in.”
It seems hard to believe – the petite, well-spoken singer, with a mane of curly hair that inspired changing his name from Gerard to Leo – beating off mobs of screaming fangirls.
Sayer circulated in superstar company, becoming close friends with former Beatles George Harrison and Paul McCartney, collaborating with Roger Daltrey of The Who, and even sharing a sly cigarette or two with John Lennon and Yoko Ono who had a flat above his design studio.
“I met Jimi Hendrix right at the start of his career. I actually jammed with him, playing the harmonica, and him playing the guitar,” he says.
Recalling his 1975 opening night at the famous Troubadour Club in Los Angeles, he looked up to see an intimidating line-up of fans in the front row.
“It was David Bowie, Elton John, and ‘The Fonz’ [Henry Winkler].”
Alongside them: John Cleese, Mick Jagger, Bernie Taupin, and comedian Marty Feldman.
“We never thought it would last, we were adapting to things around us, writing songs about things that are around us,” he says.
“And we thought they were only for our generation — so the amazing thing is my music’s become like a fine wine, where you lay it down and years later, it becomes a collector’s item.
“We’re in an age where the music that I make, young kids are actually latching onto it now, and they’re finding that that generation and that style of music we made is as current now as anything.”
Sayer’s health battles, still spreading hope at 76
Leo Sayer says his hospital charity work caps off a career dedicated to providing joy through music.
“It’s a nice piece of synchronicity really, because I was born in the grounds of a hospital in Shoreham by Sea in Sussex, near Brighton in England,” Mr Sayer said.
“I suppose I’ve always felt comfortable in hospitals and being around hospitals.
“Growing up, my dad was a hospital engineer, Mum was a nurse, my sister was a matron.”
Sayer has health struggles of his own, including three stents in his heart, which help him have a genuine connection to the hospital patients he entertains.
“[My music] is providing something that isn’t taking away from any of the treatment that’s going on. It’s providing something that’s just putting a smile on peoples’ faces.
“Music is communication and that’s what this is all about, we’re communicating, we’re making people feel better.
“We’re not healing people with music, but we are making them feel better about their healing.
“To sell out Canberra Hospital will do me fine.”
One loyal McDonald’s customer will no longer be shopping at the fast-food chain, he was shocked when he found out how the…
One loyal McDonald’s customer will no Ionger be shopping at the fast-food chain. Because the person in question, a man named Jordan, is a vegetarian, he was only able to order a select bunch of items from McDonald’s restaurants in the first place.
However, Jordan turned to the Chinese-created TikTok social media app last week to reveal how McDonald’s fries are not even vegetarian as the fast-food giant loves to cook their famous French fries in beef flavoring – the news has Ieft millions of vegetarians and vegans appalled, and horrified by the way McDonald’s had been misleading them.
Jordan’s viral video has accumulated nearly ten million views at this point – and counting – and continues to educate people about how McDonald’s was secretly flavoring their famous French fries with beef fIavoring to give them that good old-fashioned cow flavor.
In his video, Jordan claims he knows “so many fast food secrets” but was only going to give his followers a taste with this one tidbit about McDonald’s fries and how they are not truIy vegetarian.
I know why McDonald’s fries taste different from everybody else’s fries, he said. And I’m going to tell you guys. It’s because McDonald’s cooks their fries with beef flavoring mixed with vegetabIe oil. That’s why their fries taste so good but also so different from everybody else’s.
It’s probably bad news for vegetarians, but the more you know.
Fortunately, vegetarians can still shop at McDonald’s restaurants for French fries in some locations around the world.
According to Jordan, who proclaimed himseIf a fast-food expert, McDonald’s does not use beef flavoring for their fries in the United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia, so vegetarians in those countries can continue to order fries without concerns.
They cook the fries with regular oil, so if you’re vegetarian, you can have the fries in those places. McDonald’s has published information about the beef flavoring of their French fries on their website. They address the issue head-on in a way that most vegetarians will not Iike because they probably missed it all these years.
When our suppliers partially fry our cut potatoes, they use an oil blend that contains beef flavoring, the fast-food company states on its FAQ website page. This ensures the great-tasting and recognizable flavor we all love from our world-famous fries.
Jordan’s video broke many peopIe’s hearts. Thousands of TikTok users were shocked and horrified to Learn that McDonald’s was using beef flavoring on their French fries in the United States and in many other parts of the world.
One person wrote, “I’M VEGETARIAN.
My whole life is a lie, another person wrote trag ically.
Other people backed up Jordan’s tell-all video about McDonald’s fries and their beef flavoring.
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