When a rock musician decides to cycle the entire length of the United Kingdom, roughly 1,000 miles from the southern tip of England all the way to the northern coast of Scotland, you know the cause behind it must be something truly special. Ross MacDonald, bassist of the globally beloved band The 1975, is doing exactly that this spring alongside three friends, pedaling up to 160 kilometers a day for 16 consecutive days to raise money for Nordoff and Robbins, a charity that has provided creative music therapy to people with physical, psychological, and developmental disabilities since 1958. MacDonald says the decision to take on the challenge was an easy one once he began to learn about the real-world impact the charity was having on people’s lives. It was only after meeting a young woman named Ruby that he truly understood just how profound and life-changing that impact could be.
Ruby, who is in her late teens and has autism and ADHD, had been through an incredibly difficult stretch in her life, including hospitalization, before Nordoff and Robbins introduced her to playing the bass guitar at the age of 14. The transformation her family witnessed after that introduction was, by her mother’s own words, something that had genuinely saved Ruby’s life on more than one occasion. During MacDonald’s visit to the charity, Ruby even took a moment to cheerfully tease him for being old enough that the internet was rationed in his house growing up, a memory he recounts with obvious delight. MacDonald helped her learn a bassline from one of his all-time favorite songs and says the deep focus and joy that music brings to sessions like Ruby’s is exactly why he believes music therapy deserves to be recognized as a mainstream mental health treatment rather than just a pleasant optional extra.
