A fiddle player who broke her wrist was able to still play her gig after her dad gave her a hand - literally.<br /><br />Mary Leahy, 18, broke her wrist just two days before her solo at the Peterborough Music Festival, Ontario, after falling off a farm buggy. <br /><br />But instead of pulling out, her dad Donnell Leahy, 55, - one of the best fiddle players in the world who toured with Shania Twain - stepped into help.<br /><br />He played the bow while Mary did the chords with her healthy hand.<br /><br />Mary, a full-time musician from Peterborough, Ontario, said: “I managed to play with my left hand only - I don’t know how, but it was really hard."<br /><br />“People said it looked really hard to do - but we know the instrument inside-out.<br /><br />“I honestly don’t know how I pulled it off, but I did - and I think the novelty of it makes the show better."<br /><br />"His left hand was playing the fingers on my back. <br /><br />“It was tickling me - while I had to imagine myself playing the bow with my right hand. <br /><br />“If you understand the instrument, it’s not hard at all.<br /><br />"I loved having my dad help me out with the solo - we’re even thinking of making it part of the act."<br /><br />Mary has been touring with her parents for 12 years, after starting fiddle lessons aged four.<br /><br />The band, the McMaster-Leahy Family, includes Natalie MacMaster, 51 and Donnell - as well as Mary's six siblings, Michael, 16, Clare, 15, Julia, 13, Alec, 11, Sadie, 10 and Maria, six.<br /><br />They play festivals every summer - and her solo at the Peterborough Music Festival in Ontario, was on July 1, 2023. <br /><br />But on June 29, she fell from a farm cart - and ended up with a wrist splint. <br /><br />“I’m usually the last person to do something stupid,” she added. “I was on the back of a side-by-side farm cart. <br /><br />“I was riding on the back with all my siblings, when another driver just jerked the back of it. <br /><br />“I landed on my wrist - but I didn’t think for a second it was broken. <br /><br />“When I woke up the next day, I was very swollen and very sore."<br /><br />Her best friend, Cecilia, 17, who is also a musician, offered to play the piano with her - while Donnell helped her play the fiddle. <br /><br />Donnell was named as one of the ‘world’s best fiddle players’, by Viterbo University, Wisconsin, and toured with Shania Twain in 1997.
