Sarah Vachon[/caption]Carol Forsloff — For years, musicians have used their talents to raise money for victims of natural disasters and to help people with special needs. Willie Nelson created Farm Aid to raise money to get young people involved in agriculture and to call attention to the needs of farmers, while U2, the Irish rock band and founder, Bono, have focused attention on world hunger for more than 25 years. Now there is a similar movement taking place in a gathering of musicians on the Internet, to focus attention on the plight of a child named Sarah and other youth with cancer.
Fandalism is an international music community founded by Philip Kaplan, a drummer and Internet entrepreneur. Presently there are over half a million participants in Fandalism from all over the world who share their music with one another and with the public. Many performers have found new relationships and opportunities through collaborating with one another. And a group of them have organized to produce a song that calls attention to Sarah, a young girl with cancer, whose family struggles to cope with the emotional and financial stressors related to the care of the young daughter, as well as their nine-year-old son who has Aspergers syndrome.
Several musicians on Fandalism have collaborated on a song for Sarah, "Swing on a Star." Kirk James, a remarkable tenor from Scotland, and Nancy Burridge, a soprano with a five octave voice range, are performing the song within an animated video, which has been created by Dave Rodriguez to illustrate the song. Both Burridge and Rodriguez are American members of the Fandalism community.
Sarah suffers seriously from the pain involved in her treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) of type T, a form of cancer that requires two years of chemotherapy treatments, including radiotherapy. It grieves the family to see their child in so much pain. Complicating this is the fact the father, Steve Vachon, is not working due to the depression created by the child's illness and the financial difficulties as well. Steve and his wife have taken turns accompanying Sarah daughter for painful treatments for the past year, and face another year of procedures to treat Sarah's leukemia.
The purpose of the song is to provide some avenue to ease the emotional and physical stresses on the family, especially the child. The focus of Sarah's Song will be on the child, not the performers involved. Following the performance of the song, Burridge will share a description and photos of Sarah and her family. The narrative will be done to Canon in D, a melody written in the 17th century, which will play in the background. An offsite page will be used to elicit donations for the child.
Sarah, shown here, has all the childhood dreams and interests of other little girls, including dancing and singing and playing with her Barbie dolls.. She was diagnosed in May 2011 with a rare form of leukemia requiring two types of treatments that include chemotherapy and radiotherapy, almost every day. Jakob, the nine year old, was so negatively impacted by watching his sick sister that he has had to spend time with his grandparents during some of the treatments.
Sarah's mother, Natalye Provençal, also had a rare form of cancer, diagnosed when she was just 13 years old, called rhabdoid rhabdomyosarcoma. This type of cancer attacks the glands and soft muscles of the body. At the time, it was the twenty-fourth case discovered in the world. At the time of the mother's diagnosis, doctors refused to offer much treatment, saying she was going to die anyway. Her parents lobbied doctors and specialists and they finally started cancer treatments. The summer of 2011 was planned as a time for her to rest before completing her degree in 2012.
After Sarah started treatment, Steve began intensive renovations on his home, to make the premises safe and to provide easy access in order to avoid injuries or infections. He says about his daughter, "Sarah is an example of courage for our entire family. She resigned in peace during her treatment and has not one ounce of aggressiveness when she suffers and she just asks for comfort and relief she needs."
People are encouraged to donate for Sarah at http://tinyurl.com/a8e8e9u.
The song and the child's story can be found at http://fandalism.com/nancyburridge/bErb.