TORONTO – Toronto teenager Olivia Wise touched the hearts of people around the world after a video of her singing Katy Perry’s “Roar” went viral.
Wise died Monday afternoon, two years after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.
Six weeks ago Olivia’s family brought her to a Toronto recording studio, with the idea of creating a music video as a keepsake for the family.
Although Olivia was in an extremely weak state, her family cheered her on as the Toronto teen sung a cover of Perry’s “Roar” beautifully.
In the six weeks since the 16-year-old’s video was posted to YouTube, it has been viewed more than a million times, prompted a response from Perry and resulted in more than $85,000 in donations to cancer research.
On Monday after news broke Olivia had passed away, Perry took to Twitter to send Olivia a final message.
Wise’s story has affected many including York University student Zev Gasner, who created his own video showing 1,000 messages of thanks to the young singer from university and high school students.
The success of Olivia’s video prompted her family to put the song up for sale on iTunes with proceeds going to the “The Liv Wise Fund,” which contributes to brain cancer research and support for children battling cancer.
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