Cancer Diagnosis Inspires New Anita Cochran Song, ‘Fight Like a Girl’
Anita Cochran has been down, but she's not out. The country singer-songwriter is back with a new song titled "Fight Like a Girl," which was inspired by her year-long battle with cancer.
Cochran tells Nashville's Tennessean newspaper that she was sitting at home watching HGTV in August of 2017 when she absentmindedly scratched an itch and discovered a lump in her breast. Within days, she'd been diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer, and she began an aggressive regimen of four different chemotherapy drugs whose side effects made it impossible for her to tour, which is the primary source of her income.
Cochran is known for a string of songs she released between 1997 and 2004, including her biggest hit, "What If I Said," a duet with Steve Wariner that reached No. 1 in 1997. She says her reaction to not being able to perform was, "What? How am I going to live?" But friends organized a GoFundMe campaign, and all-star friends including Wariner, Crystal Gayle, Wade Hayes, Clay Walker, Ty Herndon, Jamie O’Neal, Lorrie Morgan, Terri Clark, Mandy Barnett, Bryan White, Pam Tillis, Suzy Bogguss and the Lynns hit the stage on March 13 for a benefit concert that was highlighted by a surprise appearance from Wynonna Judd.
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The concert raised $12,000 toward Cochran's expenses, and after undergoing a double mastectomy and having one of her lymph nodes removed in February, she says she has been cancer-free for four months, though she will continue to receive treatment through October.
She has just released her first new song since her cancer diagnosis, and "Fight Like a Girl" draws directly from her experience, though it does not use the word "cancer." Cochran says she wanted the song to be bigger than that.
"I wanted it to be about any kind of fight that a woman goes through," she states, adding that she has a new mission now both in her music and with her blog, Journey to Healing, at her official website. There, she has shared the details of her cancer fight and what she has learned.
"I didn't want anyone to have to go through what I did, this crash course of 'Oh, my God, learn everything,' " she shares. "Maybe my journey can help people. I feel like that's my purpose now."
"Fight Like a Girl" is now available for download and streaming via various digital services. Cochran is currently at work on an EP that she hopes to release during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. To contribute to her medical bills, visit her GoFund Me page.
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