Grateful David MY MUM'S FINAL ACT OF LOVE

Knowing she was dying, his beloved mum Victoria made sure her two besties would be watching over her son

- Fleur Guthrie

Victoria Seymour loved a glass of bubbles. So when the 50-year-old chief pharmacist of Northland DHB found herself feeling yet again like she couldn’t stomach a glass of wine, she knew there was “something wrong”.

The devoted mum-of-three stopped off at the chemist to get a pregnancy test, which subsequently turned positive.

But, as a scientist – and knowing she couldn’t be pregnant – it confirmed her hunch that something more sinister, a tumour, was giving her a false positive result.

Five months later, just before succumbing to liver cancer, Vicki asked one request of her younger sister Nicola Faithfull and her best friend from primary school Penny Swarbrick – “Please look after my boys.”

And while nothing could have prepared him for the grief of losing a parent in his early twenties, politician David Seymour is grateful that his dear mum thought to provide solace in her absence for him and his two younger brothers, Mark and Xander.

As he introduces his “surrogate mothers” to the Weekly, the 38-year-old Act leader sums up their special relationship – they feed him, inspire him, keep his feet on the ground and always have his back.

He explains, “It’s been a beautiful thing to see how they’ve covered for their best friend. I can go to them for any sort of advice.”

“And sometimes he gets it for free!” quips Penny, a lawyer (and no relation to Green party MP Chlöe Swarbrick).

“Well, I don’t really ask for it, I just receive it,” grins David, who enjoys hilarious banter with them throughout the interview.

Both women also came to the first episode of Dancing with the Stars to support him when they assumed he’d be the first contestant to get voted off.