Songwriter Turns to Crowdfunding to Help Children with Cancer

When you're hit with the news that one of your daughters has leukemia, would you go through the typical stages of grief as laid out by Kübler-Ross, or setup a crowdfunding campaign to cover your medical bills? American folk singer-songwriter, Alastair Moock, went an unusual path and setup a GoFundMe page to raise $15,000 - to record an album.

Mook still went through a week long "zombie phase," but coped with it by grabbing his guitar. He took his guitar to the hospital to lift the spirits of his daughter and found it also helped him. After experiencing the healing power of music, Mook wanted to offer this medicine to other children struggling through similar situations.

Mook identified the costs to produce and distribute his album would be $15,000 - and that's all he asked for. He's not looking to profit or cover his medical bills. He simply wants to make a free resource and get it into the hands of every pediatric oncology program in the Country.

The crowd responded by donating $17,910 from 200 donors in 1 month. Because of the faith of the crowd and Mook's vision, next year during National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month children across the Country will have a set of songs to help them cope.

You can hear an early demo of one of the songs, I'm a Little Monkey, sung by Mook & his daughter Clio. While listening to it you can almost see the children in the hospital room hopping around with their hands in the air.

Although crowdfunding is a great tool for covering medical expenses, the next time you're faced with life-altering news, could you think of a way to bless others during the experience? If you can, consider running a crowdfunding campaign to cover the development and implementation costs.