A TALENTED nine-year-old has written a poignant song to raise money for a struggling food bank.

Myah Arnold, from Benfleet, was devastated to hear she would no longer be able to perform in the High School Musical production at Towngate Theatre this month.

But rather than letting the impacts of coronavirus get to her, Myah channelled her creative skills into something more positive and decided to write her very own song in support of Rayleigh Evangelical Church Foodbank.

Her mum, Holly, said: “Ever since she was four Myah has loved to sing and dance, so she was so upset when she found out she couldn’t be in the singing and dancing ensemble for the show.

“It made her really miserable, until she came up with this idea.

“We’ve set up a Just Giving page to collect as much as we can to help buy tinned food for the food bank.

“Donations can be as little as £2 and we’ve already raised £126. We worked out, if a tin is about 50p that’s 252 tins already, so Myah is over the moon.

“She said to me: ‘Mum, think we’re helping more than 200 people’.”

Myah’s song, At Home Tomorrow, is expected to hit YouTube this week, having already been widely shared on social media.

Holly added: “As she was also meant to be performing as Annie in a show at Woodham Ley Primary School in the summer, she wrote the song to the tune of Tomorrow from the film.

“The lyrics begin: ‘At home we’ll have fun tomorrow, if we wear our smiles, then tomorrow won’t be glum’. We all pitched in to write it, but she put her own spin on it and changed it to fit the music.

“We’re so proud of her for turning what has been a negative and scary time into something so positive.”

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