Cancer victim writes charity single
Wales This Week has spent the last six months filming with Hywel Jones, who despite battling terminal cancer has been striving to leave a musical legacy to help others.
Hywel, 53, from Llantwit Fardre, near Pontypridd, has spent five years fighting the disease but In January, as our team filmed with him, he was told the cancer had spread further and he was given only months to live.
Hywel had a dream. And, despite his worsening condition, he was determined to fulfil it.
Last year he wrote a song with a friend Rod Thomas. “Always It’s You” is a love song for Hywel’s wife Cathy. And through social networking and a blog Hywel had been writing about his cancer, he found a platinum-selling artist to record the song.
“I had a message from Donna Lewis, who’s a Cardiff singer-songwriter... I used to play drums in a band with her a long time ago in Cardiff...We’d emailed each other a few times and then I thought she would be perfect to do the song.” - Hywel Jones
Donna, who has moved to the United States, recorded the single at her studio in Upstate New York. Hywel then persuaded one of the world’s leading record producers, Grammy Award winner Trevor Horn, to mix the song.
Mr Horn, who has worked with many of the leading artists of the last 30 years, including Cher and Tina Turner, quickly agreed to help.
The song has now been released with the profits going to Welsh cancer charity Tenovus.
Hywel’s journey features in a film by the award-winning current affairs programme Wales This Week, called “Do Not Go Gentle”. It is on at 7.30pm tomorrow (Tuesday) on ITV Wales.
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