Addy is an impossibly adorable five-year-old girl from Alexandria, Virginia, who like a lot of young girls is a big fan of pop star Katy Perry. She also loves a lot of the other things that little girls love. Rainbows. Sparkles. Cotton candy. Reading. Coloring.
But when Addy was four, she was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. The trouble started in January of last year when she was stricken with crippling stomach pains and had to be rushed to an emergency room. The pains eventually went away, and the hospital let her go.
But when she was on a vacation with her family just two months later, the pain came back. This time, doctors got to the true cause of the problem. She immediately began chemotherapy and radiation.
Of course, this was quite an ordeal for the four-year-old, but Addy kept her spirits high by watching her favorite pop stars — including Katy Perry, naturally — on YouTube. Then, during periods when she was feeling a bit better, she would get up and practice singing and dancing to her favorite songs.
There was one song, in particular, that helped keep her spirits high. That was Katy Perry’s Number One hit, “Roar,” with its uplifting lyrics about fighting and winning and not letting anything keep you down.
So when Addy wrote to the Make-a-Wish Foundation ‘s Mid-Atlantic branch, saying her wish was to be a pop star and appear in a music video, the choice of song was an obvious one.
The Washington Redskins charitable foundation kicked in to make this slick but heart-melting video happen. At a Make-A-Wish Foundation gala, Addy even got in a dance with Washington linebacker Ryan Kerrigan.
But the best news to come out of Addy’s story is this: Addy is now cancer-free. With the help of Katy Perry’s “Roar,” she powered her way through chemo and beat the disease, and now has a memory that will last her what should now be a very long lifetime.
Check out Addy’s “Roar” video, below — and how about that Katy Perry purple hair?
