WHEN Beverley Craven was selling millions of records and touring the world all she could think about was her daughter Mollie.

The Promise Me singer became a popstar and a parent at around the same time in the early 90s and what should have been a career highlight was anything but.

"It was awful," said the Brit Award winner who is performing at Lymm Festival.

"I did a lot of crying on planes and in hotel rooms because the separation anxiety was overwhelming.

"So I quickly realised that I couldn’t do it. I thought I could keep all the balls in the air but I couldn’t.

"When they’re that young your kids grow up so quickly so you don’t want to miss any of it because you won’t get the chance again. It’s really important."

After three albums, Beverley withdrew from the music scene for a decade between 1999 and 2009 to spend time with her daughters Mollie, aged 23, Brenna, aged 19, and Connie, aged 18.

But now Beverley is enjoying making music more than ever because it is on her terms and even a form of 'therapy'.

"I've been through quite a bit," added the 51-year-old.

"I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 so that kind of took me out for a couple of years. Then I went through a divorce in 2011.

"Songwriting is sort of my therapy so I tend to bleat about it in my songs. I'm lucky to have my music in that way.

"How do people process this stuff when they go through something heavy duty if they don’t have a way to get it out?"

Music continues to be a family affair for Beverley too.

She is the third generation of her family to become a musician with her daughter Connie being the fourth.

"It's bizarre how time has flown," said Beverley, who is also keen swimmer who has represented the UK in national championships.

"Connie’s a songwriter and singer and is in a band at the moment. She’s great and has supported me on a few gigs.

"The music business has completely changed since I was her age.

"She’s the one now telling me how it all works. You’ve got to have this online presence and you’ve got to have your own fanbase. It’s all a bit beyond me. I just go out and do my concerts."

In a similar way, Beverley was inspired to become an artist by her mum Gill.

She added: "She used to play the piano a lot in the house and I just figured that was what everyone did. I thought it was the most natural thing to do.

"I started lessons early and then I discovered people like Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Billy Joel. I tried to emulate them until I found my own feet."

Beverley and her mum also recently performed together to pay tribute to another musician in the family.

The singer's grandmother Mollie recently died, aged 100. She used to play the piano accordion.

Beverley said: "She was very proud of my career and I sang at her funeral and my mum played a couple of things on the piano.

"She used to come to gigs until about four years ago."

Looking back, Beverley told Weekend that meeting Audrey Hepburn was one of her highlights.

She added: "It was at a UNICEF charity gala in Belgium and she was surrounded by hordes of people and was just very gracefully putting up with it all.

"I had my picture taken with her which is on my mantelpiece. I’ve also met the Queen, Prince Charles and Roger Moore. That kind of thing was always fun and a bit dreamlike.

"It was all such a whirlwind at the time that’s it only now looking back on everything that I think how good it was.

"I was just rushed off my feet and exhausted because I had children at the same time."

But Beverley's most bizarre moment was giving birth to Mollie, who was named after her grandmother, less than a month after performing at the Brit Awards.

She said: "I was heavily pregnant at the Brit Awards and I had to wear my ex husband’s bedroom slippers on stage because my feet were so swollen.

"I was this great big lump on stage and just about to pop. I remember when the audience applauded after I played it woke the baby up and inside me she was jumping around."

Beverley moved to London when she was 18 to try and find her big break but struggled to make ends meet for four years.

It was only her determination that kept her going before her first big opportunity when she sang backing vocals on a record for Ronnie Wood and went on tour with Bobby Womack.

Beverley added: "I used to make sandwiches for Sealink ferries, sell insurance, wait tables and sing covers in an Italian restaurant. It was just enough to get by.

"I thought I can’t give up because this is the best thing about my life.

"It’s what I do. I thought I could go back to playing standards in a wine bar or teach but it would have driven me insane.

"If your passion is to write songs and to perform then you don’t really have much choice in the matter."

- Beverley Craven will be in concert with the Lymm Big Sing choir on Tuesday, June 23, at Statham Lodge Hotel as part of Lymm Festival. Tickets are £15. Visit lymmfestival.org.uk