Th sta of wa co as if I die
THEY are the mother and daughter who showed nerves of steel on Britain’s Got Talent when Simon Cowell stopped their duet and sent them off-stage.
In just 15 minutes Sammy, 43, and 14-year-old Honey HarrisonMaw overcame the crushing start and had perfected a new song.
Their performance was so good judge Amanda Holden put them straight into the live semis as her golden buzzer act. But for Sammy, singing in front of the judges, a live audience of 3,000 and millions of TV viewers was easy compared to asking a specialist if she would beat cancer.
She says: “When they first told me I had cancer it hit me like a brick. I was in the room by myself, so I held the surgeon’s hand and said, ‘Am I going to die?’ He said, ‘probably not’. And I told them I’d do whatever it took to stay alive.
“So standing there on the BGT stage, in front of such big name judges, was nothing compared to that.”
Sammy’s bombshell breast cancer diagnosis came in January 2018 and was shared only with close friends. Many asked how she slept.
“Every night I slept with Honey,” she says. “I thought, my God, if I’m not going to be around to guide my daughter then I have a lot of life’s advice to give her.
“So our talks were a lot of, ‘If a boy treats you like this, then you need to do x, y and z’.
“And I bought her new pets. Honey kept asking for hamsters and I kept saying no. But after the diagnosis, I thought ‘you only get one life. Have the hamsters!’ ”
Sammy, from Chigwell, Essex, went through 18 months of gruelling treatment before getting the all-clear.
She says: “I had a complete removal of my right breast, and then a removal of lymph nodes.
“Luckily the cancer was only just on its way out around my body so I didn’t need any further treatment.
“I spent the next year preparing for a reconstruction which involves an inflatable implant, and then went to hospital weekly to have my skin stretched because they need to create space for a new breast.
“Although it’s not a car crash, it’s still not the same as the other side, so a lot of emotions came with that as well. Cancer changes you. It humbles you. And it teaches you
SAMMY HARRISON-MAW ON HEARING DIAGNOSIS what’s important, and what’s not.” Sammy’s close family all helped her through her recovery, and Honey helped her, perhaps without realising it.
“Honey never cried. She was 12 and my diagnosis went over her head. So when I said she’s been my rock, I meant it.”
Of all the things Sammy and Honey like to do together in their rural home they share with horses and dogs, singing is top of the list.
Both are accomplished singers – Sammy was classically trained from the age of 11, and Honey attends Sylvia Young Theatre School and appeared as young Cosette in the West End production of Les Miserables, from the age of seven.
Sammy says: “I was soprano for a very long time until I turned to power ballads by Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, and I annoyed my singing teacher because the soprano went out the window.
“I spent most of my teens and 20s chasing record deals and I nearly won contracts twice – but they amounted to nothing.
“I was gigging since I was 15
When they first told me that I had cancer... it hit me like a brick
with a co have bee places yo And I au the time I
“I reali recognis audition although the world next 15 y
When who has they ha singing a being a m