Before all that for around 30 years since playing Magnolia Hawks in Show Boat at the age of 17 at the Lyceum (in pre-refurbishment days), any am-dram company in Sheffield wanting a lead soprano sought out Barbara.

Her longest stints were at Sheffield Amateurs, Sheffield Teachers and Woodseats and she could easily have turned professional but she didn't want to leave two young sons: one of them, Chris, going on to have a professional singing career.

Then 16 years ago at the age of 50, Barbara dropped off the scene, having being diagnosed with Parkinson's six years earlier.

She says: "It started to show on stage and robbed me of my confidence. All I could think about was hiding the tremor, not what I was doing. So I realised then it was time to pack it in."

So that was it, except for coming out of "retirement" to make a record for the Parkinson's Disease Society with Chris, until about six years ago when she discovered she had osteoporosis.

"I didn't know I'd got it, but I broke ribs and bones and my right side broke down, so I couldn't stand upright. I was also more shaky then, whereas I do shake a little now, but it's mainly rigidity."

More or less confined to a wheelchair because of the bone disease, she says: "I found that sitting down in a wheelchair I could still sing. If I was propped up with cushions, my diaphragm was straight.

"I knew before that I could still sing, but I hadn't been able to stand up straight" – the diaphragm is crucial to breath and voice 'support' in singing and cannot function properly if bent.

"So it's the circumstances of the illness that have guided me back to singing, really."

News got round and soon Barbara was being asked to sing: "'Oh no,' I said. 'I don't think I can.' They said 'you can, you can do it.' So I did and it went well, better than I expected.

"The biggest concert I did was when Pauline Coopland and Jill Hepple asked me to sing with them at a concert in aid of the Parkinson's Disease Society at Upper Chapel, four years ago at Christmas.

"It was wonderful, a wonderful night and went down really well."

Another more recent concert that went down very well was with Andrew Nimmo, her leading man in three shows in years past, who is now suffering with lymphoma.

"He's not in good health but is so cheerful, you'd never know. He's on crutches and really needs to sit down. When we did this concert we were both sitting down and felt more confident together singing than we do on our own.

"It's given us a new lease of life.