'If it wasn't for Mariah Carey I'd be dead,' says back up singer Deborah Cooper

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Deborah Cooper, 60, was a back-up singer for Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross and a member of the 90's group C + C Music Factory
She performed for Bill Clinton
Suffering from liver cancer, her weight dropped from 160 lbs to 90 lbs
She had to walk with a cane, but also had an enormous tumor that made her look like she was pregnant
Deborah was put on a transplant list and waited to die
She needed money for a special holistic treatment program - money she didn't have
A friend called Mariah's right hand man and explained what was going on
Within 24 hours he called back and said 'Mariah wants to know where to send the money' - no questions asked

Published: 08:19 EST, 16 July 2015 | Updated: 09:48 EST, 16 July 2015

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Deborah Cooper says she is alive today because of Mariah Carey.

The former back-up singer for the multiple Grammy winner, Cooper was at death's door, told she had just two months to live when Mariah made it possible to get the treatment that ultimately saved her.

Deborah was suffering from liver cancer and had shriveled from her normal weight of 160lbs to just 90lbs. She had to walk with a cane, but also had an enormous tumor that made her look like she was pregnant with twins.

The singer, 60, who had No.1 hits and performed at the White House as part of 90's group C + C Music Factory, had isolated herself from friends and family once she realized how sick she really was.

Helping hand: When a friend called Mariah's right hand man and to explain that her former back-up singer Deborah Cooper was dying of liver disease, there were no questions asked. Carey was eager to help in every way

Hanging out: James Hester, Mariah, Deborah, another friend and Randy Jackson before Deborah's illness

'It started when I just began to feel really tired and my legs felt heavy,' Deborah recalls in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Online. 'I thought I was just burnt out at first but then I'd blow up and gain weight and then lose weight.

'My stomach was always bloated. When my mom finally saw me she was shocked. She insisted I go to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York right away. That's when I was diagnosed with liver disease.

'They said without a liver transplant I wouldn't survive. And its not like there was a liver available. I was very depressed.'

With nothing to do, Deborah went back to her apartment in the Washington Heights section of New York City and tried to prepare for the inevitable.

At the same time celebrity publicist and author James Hester was desperately trying to get hold of his long time friend. 'Someone told me that Deborah was dying, but she was never answering my calls,' he remembers.

'Finally I left a message and said, "If you don't pick up I am calling the police." That's when she finally answered and told me what was going on.'

Weighty matters: Deborah performing before getting sick at left. At right just after she started treatment...wearing the dress to hide the tumor

A much healthier looking Deborah less than a year after starting her treatment with Roni DeLuz

Hester, who is the author of the diet book 21 Pounds in 21 Days, with.registered nurse and naturopathic doctor Roni DeLuz suggested that Deborah seek a holistic treatment with DeLuz at her Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts clinic.

DeLuz said she was certain she could help and offered to take on the case at the deep discount of $25,000. Unfortunately it was $25,000 Deborah didn't have.

Cue the international superstar.

'I called Michael Richardson, sort of Mariah's right hand man,' says Hester. 'I explained to him what was going on and asked him if he thought Mariah might help Deborah out.

'Within 24 hours Michael called back and said "Mariah wants to know where to send the money." Just like that, no questions asked.'

Hester, who had known the singer for many years and had arranged for her to sing for the likes of Bill Clinton, Gianni Versace and Vogue's Anna Wintour, couldn't believe his eyes when he picked up Deborah at her apartment.

Hester, who is the author of the diet book 21 Pounds in 21 Days, with .Roni DeLuz (right) suggested that Deborah seek a holistic treatment with DeLuz at her Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts clinic. Robin Quivers (left) did the diet

'I didn't even know who it was when she got close to my car,' he says. 'It was stunning. She looked like an old, pregnant woman. Her face was gaunt and she could hardly walk.'

Deborah wasn't the same person who had been part of Mariah's inner circle and toured around the world with her.

'We got very close very quickly,' Deborah explains. 'She is a hoot. She loves to laugh and we just connected. We could sing harmonies together as soon as we met.

'I started working with her on her second album and sang on songs like Emotions and Make it Happen. We all became very tight, a family. When we were out on tour Mariah always had a hard time falling asleep and her backup singers would stay with her laughing and joking until she could fall asleep. It was a great time.'

Deborah adds that Mariah was always a generous friend on stage. While she was working with Mariah, Deborah and C + C Music Factory had a huge dance hit with Pride: A Deeper Love. During her shows Mariah would always ask Deborah to sing it.

'She wanted her singers to have a moment to shine,' Deborah says. 'We had a very loyal partnership.'

Even though Deborah was thrilled that Mariah had offered the money for her treatment Deborah was still very skeptical that it would make any difference at this stage of her illness.

But the woman who first started singing in the church choir, decided to take a leap of faith and travel to the Martha's Vineyard Holistic Retreat.

Mariah Carey makes time for fans on her holiday

The singer, 60, who had No.1 hits and performed at the Bill Clinton White House as part of 90's group C + C Music Factory

Deborah also sang back up for famed soul singer Luther Vandross, who died in 2005

Deborah adds that Mariah was always a generous friend on stage. While she was working with Mariah, Deborah and C + C Music Factory (above) had a huge dance hit with Pride: A Deeper Love. During her shows Mariah would always ask Deborah to sing it

'When we were driving a piece of metal came flying off a truck and sideswiped our car,' she remembers. 'We couldn't believe it had missed us and then we looked in the other direction and saw this big truck that said G.O.D. which stands for "Good on Delivery" but we took it as a sign that everything was going to be okay.'

Under DeLuz's direction Deborah began an intensive program of easy to digest nutritional shakes with more than 40 vitamins from fruits and vegetables every two hours to detoxify and repair her damaged organs from the toxic chemicals in the body, oxygen therapy to reduce the size of the tumor and therapy to change her emotional state of mind.

Deborah says Roni DeLuz's treatment saved her life

'The body can make miraculous changes if you allow it to,' DeLuz says. 'We were providing Deborah with good nutrition at the highest level.'

DeLuz also worked in conjunction with Deborah's doctors in New York, who told her that she wasn't going to do any harm with her nutritional program, but in Deborah's case it wasn't going to do any good.

'One of her physicians said to me, "I don't care what you do, it's not going to make any difference." He had given up on Deborah,' she remembers. 'But we measured her tumor and as the days progressed it was going down.'

After 30 days, Mariah asked Deborah to come to one of her shows. Their reunion backstage was an emotional one.

'Mariah got emotional when she saw Deborah,' Hester remembers. 'She started to cry because Deborah still looked sick. But I told her that Deborah looked remarkably better than when I first saw her. The change was dramatic.'

Deborah continued to follow Dr. DeLuz's protocol.

'It took about a year, but the tumor eventually disappeared,' Deborah says. 'I went back to my doctors in New York and they said that my liver was working better than before. Faith and love and Dr. Roni got me through this.

'God had a plan for me. Faith works when something that seems impossible becomes possible. Dr. Roni gave me hope and made me feel like I wanted to fight to live.'

But DeLuz says that what some call a miracle is simply taking careful care of the body.

These days at 60 years old, Deborah is happy and healthy and has lived 9 years beyond her diagnosis. She has even started performing again

'A lot of people need what Deborah needed,' she says. 'In this country we aren't giving our bodies what it needs because we aren't eating real food. If you have to open a can or eat something processed you are doing yourself a disservice.

'Cancer is created because we are carrying these toxic load of chemicals in our bodies. Your body needs 43 different nutrients every day to be whole.'