It is with great pleasure that I announce the beginning of my long-awaited fundraising campaign in favour of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. To help research has been one of my dreams for many years, and I am extremely proud of having the possibility to do it through my music. 
The campaign begins with the release of my first single ‘I’m Like the Wind’, currently available for download from this link:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/im-like-the-wind-single/id655772669

I could say that, in a way, my music career officially starts today. All the proceeds from the single will be donated to Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, the organization funding research on blood cancer, which has contributed to the incredible discoveries that have saved the lives of thousands in the last 50 years.

I was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma 6 years ago, at the age of 20. HL is a very common type of blood cancer in teenagers and young adults between the ages of 15 and 35 years old. The overall cure rates are currently at about 75% to 80%, and for young patients with early stage disease the likelihood of cure approaches 100%. When I was diagnosed, the tumour had reached the penultimate (third) stage. If I had been diagnosed 50 years ago, I would have had no hopes to survive. I have had the great luck to be in total remission for the last 6 years – I don’t think I need to mention how much I owe to research.
It took me many years to find the courage to talk about what I still call the Great Shadow of my life. A man, a woman, a young life, who is told to have cancer in a cold hospital room, is devastated to an extent which is impossible to understand for those who – luckily – have not experienced this. That man, that woman, see their whole life pass by their eyes in a second. And suddenly the smallest details, the insignificant ones, appear as the most important things, those worth saving – we wish we were given so much more time, time to appreciate those details, to truly live.

Today, thanks to research, that dream, the dream to live, can become reality. Today, those who are given a cancer diagnosis know that a possibility to be saved, to return to life, to a fuller life, to a life lived with a higher and deeper awareness, exists. And this is thanks to those who have tirelessly worked for years so that more and more people could realize that dream. And if they can work on it, it is only thanks to you. To those who donate, to those who believe in research. To those who believe in life.

Very often, during the long and exhausting chemotherapy sessions, I have thought about those millions of unknown faces, far away in time and space, who had decided to donate. I have often thought that if it hadn’t been for them I wouldn’t have lived. It is strange, isn’t it? To think of owing your life to strangers. And yet that’s how it is. How much they donated was not important: the fact that for a second they had decided to make such a small gesture which would guarantee another person, just any other person, to live – well, that pushed me to fight harder to take back what a terrible and silent enemy was threatening to steal. I was not alone. I have never been. Unknown hands held mine tight, during that painful journey. 

If today I have decided to dedicate my first single to all of those who have faced, are facing or will face cancer, if I have decided to put my music at the service of research, is to say thank you. Thank you to those who allowed me to live. Thank you to those who allowed me to realize my dreams. 
But there’s also another reason why I do it, and it is to give a message of hope. Cancer looks in no one’s face, it doesn’t care about race, age, social status. It is true. Cancer takes everything from a human being. Many of us have lost dear ones because of this enemy, and for those who survive hearing that others will have to face the same battle is like being given that same diagnosis again, and again, and again. But I, with my little life and my little dream coming true, I am here to tell you that we are not alone. That it is possible to live, that we must not lose hope and trust in research. I have known cancer, and I have known chemotherapy, and I tell you: we must not surrender. So much has been achieved already: we cannot stop now.
If today I give my music to research is because I believe in research and I believe in life. I am no one, I am not famous. I am just a 26 year old girl who, like many, is looking for her way in a huge world. But one thing I know for sure: a second life was given to me, and I want to tell you that we mustn’t be afraid. We must fight, because one day cancer will be defeated. There is much you can do, even though you don’t know it, or think it won’t make a difference: downloading my track will be enough, or even just share the link.

This is, perhaps, the only war that really must be fought: I believe in it, and I hope you will help to make it possible for thousands of lives to be saved just as mine was.