Sitting in isolation in a hospital room battling her way through the first round of radiation in 2009, Ching had just begun her long fight against leukaemia, a disease that had already claimed the lives of her uncle and grandfather. Coming from a family of musicians, Ching's father gave her a keyboard to while away her hours while she was in isolation. The pain of those dark days and even darker nights led the Filipino media planner to a point of desperation.
"There was so much anger, angst and sadness within me, and no one to express those feelings to," she says. "That's when I recalled a poem I had written for my grandfather when he lost his battle to cancer: Let Pain Be My Strength. Words that were written to describe his battle suddenly began applying to me. The melody came straight away and by the time I left the hospital, I had composed my first cancer song."
However, it took a further two years of battling the dreaded disease before a drastic turn of events led Ching to realising her dream of having her song played to the public.
"Just as I was going through my final chemo and radiation sessions, I found out that my father was in the last stages of stomach cancer," says Ching. "The pain of watching a loved one suffer hurts so much more than having to experience that pain for yourself. Watching my dad's condition deteriorate brought back the desire to have this song out there, serving as words of encouragement and strength to my father and anyone else going through a similar situation."
Support from a rock
That desire finally led Ching to Harris, a Pakistani-Australian musician who plays at The Music Room in Dubai every Tuesday. "He loved the lyrics, and immediately got together with a local band, The Rock Spiders, and arranged my melody into a song."
Ching has since composed four more songs, Calling, Angel's Wings, Anything Can Happen, and Death, which are played every week at The Music Room in Majestic Hotel and Roadhouse in Holiday Inn Downtown, Deira.
While each track is meant to be an inspiration to other cancer patients, it is also Ching's means of gathering donations for her father's treatment. "Every person who's ever suffered cancer, or watched a loved one go through it, will identify with the lyrics of my music. Each song is a release from my own personal pain, each word a healing of sorts," she says.
And as the band sing Miracles can happen, anywhere and any time, fists are pumped in the air, heads nod in agreement, and Ching, with tears of gratitude in her eyes, prays for her next big miracle.
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