Taylor Swift brought a Glendale, Arizona, audience to tears on Monday when she sang a song that she’s only performed in public on one other occasion: “Ronan,” a 2012 track inspired by a mother’s love for her son who died of cancer.
“There’s a woman here tonight named Maya Thompson,” Swift announced before playing the song. “I wouldn’t know half as much as I know about childhood cancer and childhood cancer research if she hadn’t shared her story about her son Ronan.”
Swift, 25, previously performed the song at a September 2012 Stand Up to Cancer telethon.
Thompson had kept a blog, Rockstar Ronan, about her son’s battle with neuroblastoma, which he lost in 2011. Reading Thompson’s blog entries inspired Swift to write a tribute. In fact, Swift credits Thompson as a co-writer on the track. The song was released as a single shortly after the telethon, and all proceeds from sales went to benefit cancer charities, including the Ronan Thompson Foundation.
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During the concert, Swift also mentioned that since learning Ronan’s story, she herself has had a close encounter with cancer. In April, she shared on her Tumblr page that her mother had been diagnosed with the disease.
“I would read [the blog] every night. And in it was this account of what it was like to watch cancer take over [your] life,” she said. “And since then, I’ve had cancer hit really close to me in my family.”
This article originally appeared on People.com.
