More than two years after she was diagnosed with cancer, the hospice musician shared her last wish: 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 January 23, Cat Janice found out that her song “Dance You Outta My Head” is on the iTunes charts.
It was a moment of pride for the singer-songwriter after several difficult years.
In November 2021, the Washington, DC native first felt a lump on 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 bigger and it was very difficult,” she said in the video.
This prompted Janice, who celebrated her 31st birthday on January 21, to see a doctor. She was diagnosed with sarcoma, a rare malignant tumor.
She underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation before being declared cancer-free on July 22, 2022. Through it all, she continued to sing and write songs and share them on social networks.
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But in June 2023, the Washington Area Music Award winner told followers that the cancer had returned and was in her lungs.
“I’ll be back for treatment,” she continues. “I’m going to be very strong about it and let you know what’s going on. And thank you so much for loving me.”
TikTok videos document the musician’s second round of cancer treatment. In one video, she documents how her hair is falling out. She wrote: “When you accidentally play 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 cancer had “won”.
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In June, Cat Janice shared on Instagram that the cancer had returned, this time in her lungs.
Janice’s cat/Instagram
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On Jan. 10, she went into hospice care after she could no longer breathe in the ICU, she tells PEOPLE. She transferred all her songs to her son’s name, so all the income would go to Loren. Then, knowing she was coming to an end, she planned to release one last song.
“Everyone knows I’ve been battling cancer for a while and I wanted to release this song, and just go stream it. I hope you like it. I don’t know if I’ll even be around when the song comes out, so let’s let’s go. And I did,” she says.
The idea for the song “Dance You Outta My Head” came last spring, she says. She and Loren “knocked around the car” and enjoyed the warm weather through the windows.
“We came up with some fun lyrics and a little song,” she says. “I sang it and did a little voice memo on it, and as time went on, we’d hop around in the car to it.” A few months later she finished it.
She had hoped to publish it before she died, she told fans. “My last joy would be if you pre-saved my song ‘Dance You Outta My Head’ to my bio and streamed it because all proceeds go straight to my 7-year-old boy that I’m leaving behind,” she wrote on TikTok.
“Please share this, I have to leave this with him. If there’s one thing you need to know, it’s that the only opinion you have about yourself is your opinion. Love yourself and be gentle with others. I hope I make it through this, but if not, good night everyone.” she added.
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Janice’s cat poses with a music award from her hospital bed.
Janice’s cat/Instagram
Then, on Jan. 23, Janice woke up at 2 a.m. to her medical port beeping because of a low battery. She checked Facebook. Then she saw that 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 hell is going on here?” she recalls. “I started shouting and my parents came down, they were wondering, what’s going on?”
She is grateful for what her followers have made possible for her in the last few days.
“I have a bunch of songs in my song bank, and most of them are 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 put that behind me.”
“I just wanted to put out something fun and groovy, and I wanted to leave behind some positivity for people.”
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Source: HIS Education