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Hailey finds courage to fight cancer through music therapy

Hailey began her transplant and cancer journey at age 7. Her mom, Lisa, can still hear Hailey’s screams from when they got the official cancer diagnosis when Hailey was 10. After a difficult few years, and some music therapy intervention, Hailey is now a confident and cancer-free teenager. 

Hailey has spent much of her life in and out of hospitals, battling aplastic anemia and acute myelogenous leukemia, receiving multiple bone marrow transplants throughout the past seven years.  

Hailey’s battle with cancer was tough on her, not only physically, but mentally as well. Enter: music therapy. Music therapy helped Hailey vocalize her thoughts and helped her process and understand her feelings around her diagnoses. Lisa says music therapy saved Hailey’s life. 

FOX 9 reporter Soyoung Kim interviews Hailey, her mom, and Children’s Minnesota music therapist, Erinn Frees, on Hailey’s journey. 

Donate to support kids like Hailey

When you donate to Children’s Minnesota, you help kids like Hailey. We rely on your donations to surround every child with the most extraordinary care: highly specialized, deeply compassionate and designed to give families strength when they need it most. This includes services such as music therapy, our medical dog program, and our child life program. Donate to Children’s Minnesota Foundation | Children’s Minnesota. 

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