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For cancer patient Kevin Wayne Keating, the sound of classical music is a welcome escape from the harsh reality of his condition.
As he lies in bed at the Gold Coast University's oncology ward, he delights in listening to a string quartet made up of local medical students.
"I've got various things happening inside my body that grow and probably eventually put an end to you," Mr Keating said.
"What better way to go out than to the beautiful sounds of these young people in the string quartet?
"I thought I was in the wrong place.
"I thought, 'I'm not in a concert hall — it's live music,' as you can always tell live music as compared to something that comes out of electronics and speakers, and then I realised it was happening outside my door."
Escape mechanisms
Amy Lee, Jaewon Lee, Yi Jiun Chan, Ryo Takamizawa perform fortnightly for patients at the oncology ward at the Gold Coast University Hospital.
"Sometimes we get requests from the patients, which is always exciting," Mr Takamizawa said.
"We spend an hour playing for patients.
"Sometimes we go into their rooms and the hope is that we can give them joy and hope to their wonderful days."
The students decided to volunteer after the hospital put a call-out for talented artists to join their Musicians in Clinical Spaces program last year.
Laura Strange, who leads the program, said the quartet was a hit with patients, visitors and staff.
"The music really does give them a sense of joy, a sense of community and belonging, and that's for both the people listening but also the people playing the music," she said.
The students say the music gives them relief too.
"It's kind of like my escape mechanism from all the stress from studying," Ms Lee said.
"It's something that I've been enjoying since I was young, and getting together with my friends who are studying the same thing … we have the passion of music that we share together and it's just something that I gain a lot out of."
Ms Chan said the artform helped her unwind.
"Music for me, personally, is a way for me to reduce anxiety and provides a sense of comfort and relaxation," she said.
Dissolving the ego
Bond University professor William Forde Thompson said music helped people disengage from challenges in their lives.
"When you engage in music, there's something called ego dissolution, where you stop thinking about yourself as an individual and you start thinking in broader ways, which can really help people who are facing something like cancer," he said.
"If somebody is facing a difficult diagnosis, they're undergoing treatment for something, it's scary and music sort of takes you outside of yourself.
"You don't really think about the problems that you have, and there's also a kind of timelessness about music, so it gives you perspective."
Balancing university commitments with volunteer work can be a stretch, but Mr Takamizawa said the sacrifice was worth it.
"We do it because we truly believe that we are contributing to the health of the patients," he said.
"Health is not just an absence of disease, it's a state of complete social, emotional, cultural wellbeing, and I think that's the important thing, especially given that [for] people in oncology wards, this may be some of the trying times in their lives."