'Fight Song' Singer Rachel Platten Sends Special Message to Cancer-Stricken 10-Year-Old
Camille Clark, 10, listens to the inspirational song daily as she fights cancer.
— -- Rachel Platten, the artist inspiring thousands with her hit song “Fight Song,” has a special message for a 10-year-old Missouri girl fighting stage 4 kidney cancer that has spread to her lungs.
“Hi Camille. This is Rachel,” Platten, 34, told Camille Clark in a video shared with ABC News.
“I hear that you’re going through some pretty tough stuff but I know that you’re strong,” she said. “You have a lot of loved ones and a lot of support around you, including me now. I love you so much. Keep kicking butt.”
Platten first heard about Camille’s battle through social media, where Camille’s family and friends have rallied with the hashtag #camillemeetsrachel to get Platten to come to Missouri to sing for her biggest fan.
Camille, a rising fourth-grader, was diagnosed with cancer in April after doctors found a nine-pound tumor that was crushing her kidney, according to her mom, Jessica Trapasso.
“She was perfectly fine before then,” Trapasso told ABC News. “Out of nowhere she had a huge bulge on her left side and I thought maybe she had just gotten hurt in gym class.”
Camille had surgery last month to remove both the tumor and her kidney, according to Trapasso, and this week began the first of 15 sets of radiation, in addition to chemotherapy.
Last Mother’s Day, during a particularly tough hospital stay, Camille’s aunt played “Fight Song” for her niece, and Camille has listened to the song every single day since.
“It keeps her going,” Trapasso said of the song, whose inspiring lyrics include, “And I don't really care if nobody else believes…'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me.”
“She sings to it and she thinks Rachel is pretty,” Trapasso said of her daughter, who has lost all of her hair from the cancer treatments.
Platten saw Camille’s hashtag on Twitter and replied Sunday, writing, “Trying so hard to see if I can get to Missouri.”
“I am so incredibly moved by Camille's story and by the outpouring of love and support from her friends and family,” Platten told ABC News. “I so badly want to meet this little fighter. We are doing our very best to make it happen ...”
Trapasso, a single mom who has had to quit her job to care for Camille full-time, says Camille finds inspiration in the song to keep fighting so she can get back to the regular kid activities she loves, like riding her bicycle, playing outside with friends and swimming.
Trapasso also knows exactly what her daughter would do if she were to meet Platten.
“She’d give her a big hug,” Trapasso said. “She sings along with it every day and she would love to hear her sing that song to her.”