A PASSIONATE singer is delaying major heart surgery to ensure he can perform at a concert in west Suffolk.

Stuart Attride, 63, from Sudbury, has been rehearsing all year to fulfil his dream of singing in a barbershop quartet at the end of the month.

But as the date approached, he discovered that it was due to clash with a multiple bypass operation the former accountant was scheduled to have.

Mr Attride, a father of two daughters from Constitution Hill, said: “The concert is a long-held ambition of mine, so I spoke to my surgeon and although I thought I would have to cancel the performance, after discussing it with him we agreed that a delay of a few days was okay.”

Mr Attride, who worked for Delphi Engineering in Sudbury until his retirement last year, had been taking medication for angina but after being advised to have an angiogram, he was given some devastating news.

“They discovered that of the three main arteries in the heart, two were 100% blocked and one was 90%,” he said.

“It sounds bad but I still swim and exercise but I do get tightness in my chest sometimes.”

After the concert at St Gregory’s Church on Saturday, October 23, Mr Attride’s operation at the Cambridge Lea Hospital will involve surgeons taking spare veins from his leg which will then be used to bypass the blocked arteries in his heart.

Mr Attride said: “It is a bit like re-routing an electrical circuit. Once the vein is in, the blood will simply find a new route.”

Mr Attride said the quartet – known as Herrcut and the Barbers and made up of singers from St Peter’s Singers and the Sudbury Choral Society – will be joined by The Accidentals, a group of four women from the same two choirs. They will be singing a range of musical styles from jazz and spiritual songs to 1960s pop.

“I know many people will think it is a risk to delay the operation but I started work on this concert in January and didn’t want to let anything stop me – my family are very supportive,” Mr Attride said.

The concert starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are �5 from Compact Music in North Street or by phoning 01787 881928.