Taylor Swift honours four-year-old cancer victim with new track, “Ronan”
Taking the stage during the third annual Stand Up to Cancer telethon on Friday, Taylor Swift debuted a heart wrenching new track about a four-year-old boy who lost his battle with the disease last year titled "Ronan."
"Ronan" follows the journey of Ronan Thompson, a young boy who was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma cancer in 2010 and "died in his mother's arms" after eight short months in 2011. The track was written by Swift with co-author credits also going to his mother, Maya Thompson.
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Before her moving performance, Swift tweeted, "I'm playing a new song 'Ronan' tonight on Stand Up [to] Cancer. It'll be on iTunes tonight with all my proceeds to cancer related charities."
According to Thompson's blog, she met the singer at one of her shows after she sent her a letter about her son and "how nobody is listening to the sad story of childhood cancer."
Swift subsequently wrote the track and called Maya to ask for permission to debut it during the live broadcast of Stand Up to Cancer. Thompson took to her blog, writing about what happened during that conversation in the form of a letter to her late son.
"…She wanted to know if she could use a picture of you in the background while she sang the song," Thompson wrote. "She wanted to make me co author of the song with her. She talked about how from reading this blog and following our story, has inspired her and how amazing she thinks I am and all I am doing, to bring awareness to childhood cancer. She went on and on about some other things, which I tried to understand and reply to, but I couldn't focus on a thing besides the fact that she wrote a song, for you."
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Becoming emotional while listening to this tune is inevitable, especially with lyrics like, "What if I'm standing in your closet trying to talk to you? / What if I kept the hand me downs you won't grow into? / And what if I really thought some miracle would see us through? / But what if the miracle was even getting one moment with you?"
In response to Swift's heartfelt song, Thompson once again took to her blog and composed a letter for the singer, this time from her late son's perspective, writing:
"Thank you, Taylor Swift for being such an old soul. Thank you reminding my mama of so many things tonight. How the power of a dream, really can change the world. As long as it is a dream fueled by love, passion, strength, determination, pain, and a bit of 'spiciness.' Those are the kind of dreams that move mountains. Those are the kinds of dreams that do change the world."
To purchase the song with proceeds going to cancer charities through the Taylor Swift Charitable Fund, head here, and to learn more about Ronan's story, visit The Ronan Thompson Foundation's website here.
