Young star Molly set to shine at Gazette awards

Molly Stobbs, 15, has been shortlisted as one of our three Young Performer of the Year award nominees in the Gazette’s annual awards.

The South Shields teenager will showcase her impressive vocal talent when she performs on the finals night held at the Roker Hotel next Wednesday, September 19.

Our other young performer finalists, Amelia Saleh and Lily Cooke, will also be singing on the night before a winner is announced.

Molly, who has a passion for musical theatre, was also a nominee in last year’s awards, but narrowly missed out on the overall title.

From a young age she set her sights on a career on the West End and trained in ballet, tap, modern and street dance with Valerie Shepherd and Scene for Stars.

The teen went on to train with Starset Theatre School where she went on to star in many local theatre productions.

Molly has also taken part in singing competition Teenstar and made it to the filming round of the Voice Kids.

But it hasn’t been an easy journey for Molly, who last year came face to face with the prospect of needing surgery on her vocal chords after being diagnosed with having vocal nodules back in October.

Molly, who is now a member of Sunderland Theatre Company, said: “I was advised not to sing or be part of any shows until I had completed vocal therapy, which was going to take at least six months.

“It was very hard not being able to do something which I have a passion for.

“After several months I could still be part of some shows, but not in a singing capacity.

“If the therapy was not a success I would have needed to have an operation on my vocal cords which was quite a concerning thought.

“Thankfully it was a success and I can now go back to what I love, however I still need to ensure I am looking after my voice as this could happen again, to anyone.”

And Molly certainly hasn’t let it stop her from striving for her dreams, with plans to attend Newcastle College to study musical theatre after her GCSE’s.

Proud mum Maria Searle said: “Molly will be supporting Channy Thompson on her warm up tour in the run up to her show at the Metro Arena in Newcastle this coming December.

“Channy is a local girl from Newcastle, so it’s quite a big thing for her to be doing her own show at the arena and a privilege for Molly to be asked to do this.”

The Best of South Tyneside awards, this year, have the backing of Barbour, Northumbrian Water, Harlow Printing, BT South Tyneside, JML, UTS Engineering Ltd, Warmseal, and South Tyneside College.

The finals evening, compered by Ray Spencer from The Customs House, will be covered live by our reporting team.

You can follow the event on social media which will feature updates including the announcement of the winners as the finale progresses.

And then make sure you get your copy of our post awards supplement which will be published in the Shields Gazette on Wednesday, September 26.