Sunnybrook leads in novel approach to music therapy

In early 2025, Alana Donovan found herself juggling treatment at Sunnybrook’s Odette Cancer Centre with having a premature baby in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Malignant melanoma had spread to her brain, leading to rounds of radiation, oral chemotherapy and two brain surgeries. While pregnant, she began to have seizures which led the team in the DAN Women & Babies Program to deliver baby Lila at 30 weeks.

Just a day after Lila’s birth, the family received difficult news: a proposed surgery would leave Alana unable to speak.

When the family’s social work team offered a music therapy visit to help reduce anxiety, Alana and her husband Mitch quickly agreed.

“The music started and Lila turned her head – she was captivated,” says Alana of the moment Teresa Ianni, a music therapist, began playing her guitar and singing. “In that moment, I felt intense reassurance. I knew my baby girl was going to be okay.”

The reality of Lila never knowing her mother’s voice hit the family hard. Teresa proposed a “Heartbeat Song”, where patients’ heartbeats are layered with music to create recordings as unique as a fingerprint.

Accompanied by Teresa on guitar, the family sang a Scottish folksong called ‘Ally, Bally, Ally Bally Bee’. When Alana was a child, her grandmother and mom sang it to her, and she wanted Lila to know the song. With a digital stethoscope, Teresa recorded each family member’s heartbeat, and their personalized version of the song to create a customized heart beat song.

“Knowing Lila can listen to this, now and when she’s older, gives me such comfort,” says Alana, adding that her care team deemed the surgery that would take away her voice too risky.

Alana’s brain tumour has shrunk in size with a new oral chemotherapy. When she was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, Alana was given a year to live. Now, five years later, her voice is loud and clear.

“I sing to Lila every day,” says Alana with a smile.