Speech therapist Jaclyn Thompson was so desperate to join BBC1's Can't Sing Singers that she travels from her home in Newcastle to Liverpool for voice coaching every weekend. She talks to Viv Hardwick.

NOW you'd have thought a speech and language therapist from Newcastle would have few worries about making sure her voice was heard in all the right places.

Well, meet 26-year-old Jaclyn Thompson, from Blaydon, who is fine when it comes to coaching others, but she is so ashamed of her singing that she'd banned herself from ever appearing in public.

That is until now, when BBC1 appealed for the nation's Can't Sing Singers to come forward and be counted. Last Saturday, the nation saw Jaclyn clinch a place in the 12-strong Liverpool choir, which will be competing against other previously unsung heroes from Cardiff, Birmingham and London to become the best non-singing singers in Britain.

She was so desperate to learn to sing that she is making a seven-hour round trip each weekend to rehearse with singing teacher Jennifer John at Liverpool's famous Lipa College.

She reveals it was all the fault of her best friend Gill Williams, who now lives in Liverpool.

"She saw a random email from the BBC and we both laughed about it because it was perfect for me. She then put my details forward because I'm a notoriously bad singer."

Speaking about the many weekends of commuting from Tyneside to Liverpool she's taken on, Jaclyn says: "It's a bit of a trek, but I kind of knew right from the start that this is what I needed to do. It's pointless even complaining now because I have no choice. We've had about nine lessons now and it's going well and there's definitely been some improvement.

"We sing as a team and we're starting to harmonise now and that's when you've got to hold your own part well. That's proving quite difficult," says the woman given the role of alto when the choir competes in a nerve-wracking live final at the BBC's Television Centre on Saturday, December 18.

Tomorrow, the task may be even harder because each choir has to nominate people to take on three solo sections within two songs - in Liverpool's case it just has to be the Paul McCartney-penned Wonderful Christmas Time plus Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

On the live final, to be presented by Lorraine Kelly, she says: "At one stage we thought we were only singing one song but, last Sunday, there was a big silver envelope asking us to perform another one with only four weeks practice left."

"We don't know the format of any of the programmes. We just watch what is being shown on Saturday nights along with everyone else, usually with bated breath."

So what is her sad history of entertainment-challenged singing? Jaclyn explains: "I think I kind of branded myself as a bad singer quite early in life, rather than have anyone else do it. I opted out because I'd never sung in public, but loved to sing. As I got older I'd belt out power ballads like Total Eclipse Of The Heart at home and people told me I was really bad. But these songs have to be blasted out, you can't sing them in a pathetic little girlie voice. But I was never silly enough to have a crack at karaoke."

But why haven't her years of training, including a master's degree in speech and language therapy, led to more confidence in singing?

"I think I've got an awareness of tune and an awareness of voice and changes in pitch, but there's the voice production side about which I had no idea. I think it has helped me in terms of breathing and posture. It is the confidence thing which has massively improved since I started this programme," explains Jaclyn, who splits her working hours between Sunderland's Royal Hospital and a clinic at The Galleries at Washington.

"My clients are drug patients, those who've suffered a stroke, teachers with hoarse voices, then there's paediatrics for children with speech and language disorders, including stammering," she explains. She reveals that, in her first 12 months of work, she's already seen many singers with vocal chord nodules or with strained voices.

"I send my clients away with the reminder that they must practice their exercises and now I can see why I'm saying that because I need to do exactly the same things," she says.

So are Liverpool, plus its Newcastle guest, going to win Can't Sing Singers?

"I think we've got a good chance, but if we don't it's not such a big deal in my eyes. I'm not in it to win it but it would be a bonus. It's the icing on the cake if we do. I think all the prima donnas were wheedled out at the audition stage (thanks mostly to show judges David and Carrie Grant) because this is all about teamwork."

Jaclyn admits her performing ambition has put a strain on her relationship with boyfriend Patrick Morton - the two have been together since they met at Leeds University and he returned with her to Newcastle.

"Bless him, he's not seen much of me so we're going to go away somewhere in January," reveals the woman who's becoming one of the country's best-known non-singers.

The day after the Liverpool choir was chosen, they were asked to turn on the city's Christmas lights and sing in front of 8,000 people.

Jaclyn says: "Ever since I was tiny I've had that that 'how come she can sing and I can't' feeling?

"It's all a bit of a whirlwind at the moment. But I think what overrides everything is that passion to want to sing."

* Can't Sing Singers, BBC1, today, 5.45pm.