Daughter's tribute to mum to be released as charity single

10:09am Friday 12th March 2010

By Joanna Kilvington

A teenage girl’s emotional tribute to her dying mother could be released as a charity single after the song became an overnight hit on YouTube.

Sarah Phillips’ version of Paulo Nutini’s Autumn has clocked up more than 250,000 hits on the video-sharing site, after the 16-year-old uploaded it in the days following her mother’s death from cervical cancer.

The teenager, from Chiswick, recorded herself singing the song on her mobile phone in the final moments of her mother’s life.

Just hours later the family gathered at Debbie Phillips’ bedside as the 48-year-old took her final breath following a four-year battle with the disease.

Sarah said of her mother: “She was so good at being amazing, without you really realising she was being amazing. She was very giving and very selfless.

“I regret she didn’t hear me sing the song. I think she would be happy [about the song’s success]. She would have been happy for me as she knew how thrilled I would be, which I am.”

Sarah’s father Mark Phillips, a QC, said that three days after his wife died his daughter told him she wanted to record a song to be played at the funeral.

Fate intervened when the family went to watch Sarah’s brother Jack, 13, play football days after Mrs Phillips’ death, because also watching the match was music composer Charlie Mole, visiting from Singapore for just two weeks.

Mr Phillips, 50, said: “Like everybody he came over and said ‘I’m so sorry, is there anything I can do?’ So I asked how you go about recording a song.”

Within days Mr Mole had produced a professional recording of Sarah’s moving tribute.

The song was played as Mrs Phillips’ coffin was brought into the funeral service, attended by more than 400 family and friends.

Mr Phillips said: “I was truly amazed with the recording. We uploaded it and the rest is history so to speak.”

Within five days the song, accompanied by a video of the family in happier times, had attracted thousands of online hits from people around the world. People were encouraged to donate money to the Debbie Phillips Cervical Cancer Research Fund, which was set up by Mrs Phillips’ family.

Now, Sarah is in talks with Nutini’s record label with the hope of releasing the song as a single next month to raise further funds for the trust.

Sarah revealed she chose the song because she related to the lyrics and because her mother was a fan of the singer.

After a round of chemotherapy and radiotherapy she was given the all clear by doctors on November 3 that year, however, in March 2008 she was told the cancer had returned and there was no hope of a cure. She died on February 11.

To donate to the fund visit ucl.ac.uk/online-giving/ giving-to?project_code=p11.