Musician Mom in Hospice Releases Viral Song for Son

More than two years after being diagnosed with cancer, a musician shared her final wish form hospice: She asked her TikTok followers to stream a new song she wrote for her 7-year-old son Loren, so she could leave him the proceeds.

And on Jan. 23, Cat Janice learned her song “Dance You Outta My Head” was charting on iTunes.

It was a proud moment for the singer-songwriter after a difficult few years.

In November 2021, the Washington, DC, local first felt a lump in her neck, she explained on TikTok. At first she thought nothing of it, but in March of the following year she realized the lump was still there. “It was larger and it was very hard,” she said in the video.

That prompted Janice, who celebrated her 31st birthday on Jan. 21, to see a doctor. She was diagnosed her with sarcoma, a rare malignant tumor.

She underwent surgery, chemo and radiation before being declared cancer-free on July 22, 2022. Through it all, she continued to sing and write songs, and to share them on social media.

But in June 2023, the Washington Area Music Award winner told followers that the cancer had returned and was in her lungs.

“I’m going to go back into treatment,” she continues. “I’m going to be really effing strong about it and I’m going to let you guys know what’s going on. And thank you guys so much for loving me.”

TikTok videos capture the musician’s second round of cancer treatment. In one video, she documents her hair falling out. She wrote: “When you coincidentally release a song about losing your hair on the day your hair actually falls out.”

In January 2024, Janice returned to social media to share with her followers that the cancer had “won.”

On Jan. 10 she entered hospice after no longer being able to breathe in the ICU, she tells PEOPLE. She transferred all her songs to her son’s name, so all proceeds would go to Loren. Then, knowing she was reaching the end, she planned to release one final track.

“Everyone knows that I’ve been battling cancer for a while and I wanted to put this song out, and just go stream it. I hope you like it. I don’t know if I’m going to be around even when the song comes out, so let’s just put it out. And I did,” she says.

The idea for the song, “Dance You Outta My Head,” came about last spring,” she says. She and Loren were “bopping around in the car” and enjoying the warm weather through the windows.

“We came up with some fun lyrics and a little ditty,” she says. “I song banked it and made a little voice note of it and as time went on we would bounce around in the car to it every now and then.” A few months later she finished it.

She hoped to release it before she died, she told fans. “My last joy would be if you pre saved my song “Dance You Outta My Head” in my bio and streamed it because all proceeds go straight to my 7 year old boy im leaving behind,” she wrote on TikTok.

“Please please share this, I need to leave this with him. If there is anything you need to know, is that the only opinion of yourself is your opinion. Love yourself and be gentle with others. I hope to make it through this but if not, to all a good night.” she added.

Then, on Jan. 23, Janice woke up at 2 a.m. because her med port was beeping due to low battery. She checked Facebook. That’s when she saw iTunes had tagged her in a post that her song had charted.

“I was sitting there in the middle of the night looking at my phone — what the heck is going on here?” she recalls. “I started yelling and my parents came down, they were like, what is going on?”

She’s grateful for what her followers have made possible over the last few days.

“I have a bunch of songs in my song bank, and most of them are kind of breakup songs,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong — they’re great songs. I love those songs. But they were just breakup songs, and some of them were sad, some of them were angry, and I didn’t want to leave that behind.”

“I just wanted to put out something fun and groovy, and I wanted to leave behind positivity for people.”