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SALT LAKE CITY — Kids who are battling cancer dance in a new music video inspired by a little girl from Utah who died in 2013 from leukemia.
A friend of the late Millie Flamm, Olivia Swinton, helped write “Dance With Me,” the song she sings in the video. Olivia, 12, has never had cancer, but she knows what it’s like to be in the hospital, according to her mother, Alisha Swinton.
Olivia and Millie met when their families lived in England. While living there, Olivia had kidney problems, and Millie’s parents would baby-sit Olivia’s siblings so Alisha Swinton could go to the hospital with her daughter, she said.
Alisha Swinton said when Millie became sick, Olivia went busking, or street performing, because she knew what it was like to be in the hospital.
Olivia had never performed before she went busking to raise money for Millie, “and it was from busking that she kind of got discovered,” Alisha Swinton said.
In 2014, Olivia competed on The Voice Kids in Australia. Her mom said Millie’s story was featured on The Voice Kids, and she was pretty popular in Australia.
The “Dance With Me” video, which was posted to YouTube June 3, was a surprise for Millie’s family. The music video was primarily filmed in the Provo area.
All of the kids in the video, aside from Olivia, are fighting or have fought cancer, and they were all friends with Millie. Some of the participants drove up to two hours to be in the video, Alisha Swinton said.
“So they came from all over, and you can’t tell, but we had three different casts … a rain scene cast, a hospital scene cast and a field cast, and that’s because the kids would only last a couple hours, because some of them were still fighting cancer, and then they’d have to go and take a nap. So we had lots of food and lots of like cots on set to make sure everyone was OK,” Alisha Swinton said. All of the kids were or are patients at Primary Children’s Hospital. Cami Carver, the lead girl in the video, was the same age as Millie and fought cancer with her twice. Cami ended up finding a bone marrow match for her transplant, but Millie did not. After Millie died, Cami spoke at her funeral, Alisha Swinton said.
Olivia said she wanted to do the video for Millie to raise awareness about cancer and how hard it can be.
“Millie’s death day is coming up, and on her death day, there will be a Millie’s Princess Run where everybody can run and raise money and awareness for her foundation and help kids in need, and I wanted to raise awareness about that and show people how important it is,” Olivia said.
To learn more about the 2016 Millie’s Princess Run, visit Millie’s Princess Foundation.
