90s pop star unrecognisable 34 years after huge hit and breast cancer diagnosis
Pop star Beverley Craven looks totally different 34 years on from her huge hit.
The singer, now 60, shot to fame in the early 90s with her chart-topping song Promise Me. She became a household name thanks to her other tracks Memories, Holding On, Woman To Woman and Love Scenes. Beverley was offered a record contract after she left home at 18 to pursue her career.
Within just a year, her debut album went double-platinum after she sold over a million copies. It spent 52 weeks in the UK album chart and Beverley won a BRIT Award for Best British Newcomer in 1992. She performed at the ceremony while eight months pregnant. Beverley went on to have two more children and stepped away from the spotlight in 1999.
Beverley had success with her hit Promise Me (Surrey Advertiser)
She now looks very different from her pop days (Facebook)She made a comeback five years later, but was given a shock breast cancer diagnosis. Beverley was given the all-clear in 2008 and has opened up about her health. She said: "In many ways it has been a positive thing, it has given me a new lease of life. It's made me realise I just need to get on and do stuff that I enjoy. For a long time I had no interest in sitting down at the piano.
"I completely lost that vibe, but now it's back and I'm going out and giving it my best." Beverley learned the disease had returned in 2018 and had a double mastectomy and lymph node clearance. Last year, the singer performed a series of concerts with fellow star Judie Tzuke. She still writes and records music in her home studio and has learnt how to play the viola. Beverley shares her daughters Mollie, Brenna and Constance (Connie) with ex husband Colin Campsie.
The pair married after the birth of their first daughter at Culcreuch Castle in December 1994. Writing in her autobiography Truth Be Told, Beverley admitted: “I think it is fair to say our work ethics were pretty mismatched. My incessant dope habit was also coming between us.
The singer welcomed three daughters with her ex husband (Facebook)
Beverley was diagnosed with cancer twice (ITV/REX)"I loved the state of mind it put me in; reflective, removed and permanently sedated. It was my escape from a failing career and unfulfilling marriage. I would secretly begin puffing away first thing in the morning and remain stoned all day, popping up from the studio every so often for a quick fix."
She shared: "I was still able to function but it took an almighty effort pretending to be straight. At one point I was smoking £200 worth of skunk grass a fortnight and having it delivered to my home using coded text messages to my supplier. I had allowed my chronic habit to virtually take over my life. In the words of Pink Floyd, I had become comfortably numb.”
In 2010 she says the pair were no longer sharing a bed and so she took the decision to leave the family home. “There are undoubtedly some people who would consider me selfish, but actually I’d been very selfless for many, many years. There was no regret and there hasn’t been since, not for one second,” she said in 2013.
If you have been affected by this story, advice and support can be found at Breast Cancer Support.
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