Tributes to singer Emma Dennis

A SINGER who fought a long and courageous battle with cancer has died.

Emma Dennis died aged 43 at the Queen's Centre in Castle Hill Hospital after being diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2011.

Emma was a well-known soprano performer and held charity concerts with her husband Steven Goulden to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support and Breast Cancer Care.

Steven, 43, said: "She was a very kind, warm person.

"She didn't just touch people's lives with music, she did it by just being Emma.

"The depth of sympathy we have received as a family since her death has been very moving indeed.

"We've been contacted by so many friends and supporters.

"It has made us realise how much she meant to people."

Emma was born in Neath in South Wales and developed an early interest in music and singing.

She went on to join the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where she met Steven.

She graduated with a distinction and a clutch of individual performance awards, including Best Young Singer of the Year.

After this, Emma graduated at the Royal Academy of Music, winning a Royal Academy Bursary and sponsorship from Channel Four Wales.

In 2002, while enjoying a successful solo career, Emma was reunited with tenor singer Steven, and she moved to be with him in Howden.

From there, they toured the UK and abroad together.

Steven said: "In 2010, she became a vocal tutor at the University of Hull and proudly gave individual singing lessons to pupils at the Terrington Hall Preparatory School near Castle Howard."

Emma was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2011. A month later, she married Steven.

He said: "When she was diagnosed, for a while we kept it to ourselves.

"But we felt we wanted to do something.

"Our careers hadn't quite come to an end but we weren't able to travel about as much.

"When we could hold concerts, we did them for cancer-related charities.

"We wanted to give something back to the people who had helped us."

Steven says Emma was looked after extremely well by staff at Castle Hill Hospital.

He said: "They have something called the Oncology Healthcare Centre where you can receive complementary therapies.

"They show you relaxation techniques and give you emotional support to cope with the situation – that was invaluable to Emma."

Publicly, Emma was bright and bubbly and coped with the cancer well.

But Steven said it was in her nature to never complain about her illness.

He said: "It went out into the public domain and she wanted to bring awareness of the disease and show that you can still do things and live life.

"She never complained about her situation publicly or to anyone else.

"But obviously, as man and wife, we shared things.

"Publicly though, she remained upbeat."

Emma died in ward 29 at the Queen's Centre on June 22.

Her funeral will be held at 1.30pm on Thursday at Haltemprice Crematorium.

Her family have asked that mourners who wish to make a contribution in her memory give a donation to Cancer Research UK.

Steven said: "I want to carry on supporting the charities.

"It will be difficult to get back into the singing world, as we'd been out of the loop for a while.

"But I want to continue helping all the charities that supported Emma so well."