Blind Musician Plays for Cancer Patients

Music can be a very personal thing for people.

It can help you through tough times, or make you feel happy when you’re sad.

One Duluth woman is using music to do just that, but she has her own obstacles she’s had to overcome throughout the years.

Sharon Gill is playing the piano for cancer patients at the Essentia Health Cancer Center.

“I do it because I know how music makes people feel,” Gill explained.

While patients sit through their treatment sessions, they get the gift of listening to her many soul soothing songs.

“Music has healing power,” Gill said, and that fact is something she has known her whole life. Sharon is blind.

“I was a premature baby and I had too much oxygen in the incubator. And that’s what caused it,” Gill said.

She says being bling is a challenge, but it’s never held her back.

“It’s always been ‘there isn’t anything you can’t do if you really want to do it,'” Gill said.

Her love of music started at a young age.

“My grandmother had a piano and I used to climb up on the bench and I was about 3 or 4 or something,” Gill said.

She went on to play the piano in her dorm at the Oregon School for the Blind.

Then, for thirty years Sharon worked for the hospital as a medical transcriber and now she’s giving back in an even bigger way.

“It’s something that God wants me to do. You know, when God wants you to do something you just do it,” Gill said.

Giving the gift of music to those who need it most.

“I want to make people aware of what music can do; you know the power of music,” Gill said.

Sharon plays at the Essentia Health Cancer Center two days a week and St. Mary’s medical center one day a week. These are usually five hour shifts.

She’s been playing at the cancer center for seven years and the hospital even longer.