Our feelgood song means so much...

AS Denise Leigh's voice soared through Climb Ev'ry Mountain from the Sound of Music, Britain had no idea just how much the song meant to her and pianist husband, Stefan Andrusyschyn.

- KAREN BRYANS

The BGT favourites have been facing uphill battles from birth.

Stefan, 40, was born without eyes.

He said: "Something happened while I was developing, which stopped the growth of one of my eyes at a very early stage and resulted in me having no eye in the other socket. I am literally completely blind. I don't even have perception so I am the real deal!"

"Beats me hands down," soprano Denise, 53, grinned. "We're even competitive about how blind we are!" She was born with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare group of diseases that affect the retina.

"I was born with quite a lot of vision," Denise said. "It sort of took a nosedive when I went through puberty, and then another nosedive every time I had a baby.

"And then, when I had chemo two years ago, it just took the rest of it, basically." Denise, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, ended up losing a chunk of her "favourite" left breast, Thelma. The right one is called Louise, she told the BGT audience to rapturous applause.

"As I was going through cancer treatment, Climb Ev'ry Mountain was always in my head," she said. "It is a really life-affirming, feelgood song." And the couple's rendition brought BGT judge Bruno Tonioli to tears.

Denise's three children from an earlier relationship - Rebecca, 30, Michael, 28 and Sam, 26 are all sighted. "They dodged the bullet," Stefan said. But their child together, Dimitri, 10, has retinitis pigmentosa too. Denise explained: "Even though Stef's eye condition is not related to my condition, it turned out he carries the same damaged gene as me.