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Child with cancer brings Miranda Lambert to tears during concert

Posted at 2:13 PM, Sep 18, 2014
and last updated 2014-09-18 14:13:25-04
Miranda Lambert

While singing “Over You,” Miranda Lambert saw Brooke reaching toward the stage. Lambert reached into the audience and held Brooke’s hand.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Country music star Miranda Lambert could not finish her song during a concert in Texas after she made eye contact with a seven-year-old girl in the audience. The girl, Brooke Hester, has neuroblastoma. She has been battling cancer for several years.

While singing “Over You,” which Lambert co-wrote with husband Blake Shelton about his brother’s death, she saw Brooke reaching toward the stage. Lambert reached into the audience and held Brooke’s hand. A YouTube video shows Brooke, in her pink cowboy hat and face mask, and Lambert staring at each other.

Lambert soon became emotional and was not able to speak, much less sing. She held up her microphone and prompted the audience to singer louder.

“It was very emotional and very special,” Brooke’s mother Jessica told the Today show. “It just took my breath away when I looked up, and I got the chance to look at Miranda Lambert and thank her, as she was holding Brooke’s hand, for her complete compassion that she was demonstrating to my daughter in front of all these people. And then I just kept thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, she’s still holding her hand, she’s still holding her hand, she’s still holding her hand!’ And she wasn’t letting go. You could just feel the love surrounding the moment.”

Brooke’s family set up a charity called Brooke’s Blossoming Hope to raises awareness for childhood cancers.