Wellington College student releases single for charity

‘We get through it. We bear the scars. And we keep on keeping on.’

Hayley Canham (Lower Sixth) has released a single in support of children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent. Hayley, who performs under the stage-name ‘cannibal’, composed ‘Mars’ as a way of ‘giving something back’ to the people who supported her and her family when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia as a young child.

Hayley commented: ‘I can’t bake a cake and I certainly can’t run a marathon, but when CLIC Sargent asked if I could help, I wanted to do some fundraising and donate a song. My parents found some old home videos which they put together for the song – a little embarrassing for me, but if it is a positive story for families going through what my family and I went through, it will have done its job.’

An accomplished singer and actress, Hayley is a familiar figure on the Wellington stage; but as she addressed students and staff during Monday’s assembly, she revealed a different part of story – the story of how her life was ‘decided on the toss of a coin’.

Hayley’s message was both powerful and uplifting. She challenged listeners to ‘use that fear of the unknown, that unpredictability of tomorrow, and prove that you can make your own purpose. We are all tiny people, on a tiny planet in a huge universe; but we make a point of our own lives and we do what makes us happy, what inspires us – because that is all the meaning that we need, right?

‘In other words, live for the moment. It sounds clichéd, I know, but there’s a reason people keep banging on about it all the time. Lots of us have been through difficult times or are going through them right now and my story is the same as all of yours. We get through it. We bear the scars. And we keep on keeping on.’