With Music and Caring, Va. Girls Form a Sisterly Bond

They are together at a computer screen one morning in a sunlit kitchen in Ashburn, two girls closely watching the YouTube video that joins them.

They see the angelic face of Taylor Love, who is 4 and fighting for her life against a devastating cancer. They hear Abby Miller, 12, singing with a forcefulness beyond her age: You're not alone. Together we stand. I'll be by your side. You know, I'll take your hand.

On this day, Taylor is perched on Abby's lap, still in treatment but stable and looking healthy. She leans her head against Abby's as the music plays on.

Abby sings along.

"Keep Holding On" has become very personal here in the Virginia suburbs, where Taylor lives and where Abby has given voice to a hope and determination shared by friends, relatives and an increasing number of well-wishers.

In the past month, Abby's YouTube video for Taylor has been viewed about 10,700 times and created a ripple effect, with 30,000 people going to Taylor's Web site. There, many have left kind messages. About $1,000 has been donated, mostly in smaller amounts. A religious education program in Ohio decided to adopt Taylor's cause for the coming year.

"I'm hoping that it will help with a lot of things -- her medicines, the research, her hospital bills," Abby said.

The music video is one of 19 Abby videos uploaded since her father, Neal, opened a YouTube account two years ago. The total number of views for all her videos is nearly 1.8 million. "Keep Holding On" -- a hit by Avril Lavigne -- is among the newest and least seen, but its audience is growing.

In the video, Abby's vocals are melded with images of Taylor: blue-eyed and practicing ballet, but also clad in hospital gowns, connected to medical tubes and missing a patch of her hair. Abby asks viewers to go to Taylor's Web site to learn more and "help save Taylor's life."

For nearly three years, Taylor has battled neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that develops in certain parts of the nervous system and usually strikes young children. She has been through surgery, radiation, two clinical trials, a stem cell harvest and seven rounds of chemotherapy.

She and her family commute to New York, where Taylor sees doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and where her present treatments bring on intense pain her parents compare to childbirth. The girl rocks and moans to get through it, with her father, Mike Love, holding her on his lap.

When Taylor's disease was diagnosed in December 2006, the child was given a 30 percent chance of survival. Tests over the past year have shown no evidence of disease, but her parents know the relapse rate is high. "We try to enjoy each and every day, but we know how quickly and quietly it can come back and attack her body," said her mother, Aimee Love. "We live in fear."