Thaindian News

November 3, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): Shannon Tavarez, the young singer who had taken Broadway by storm, succumbed to cancer finally on the 1st of November 2010. Her suffering and long drawn out fight against the debilitating disease drew the attention of celebrities like Alicia Keys and Rihanna as well. Both the stars along with a number of their co stars had appealed to the general public to register themselves as potential bone marrow donors.

Tavarez whose soprano voice earned her the epithet of the Queen in Broadway had played the part of young Nala in the musical ‘The Lion King’ . She ultimately found release in death after a long period of suffering from myeloid leukemia. Shannon Skye Tavarez, which was her full name, had been born on 20th January, 1999.

The disease became all the more fatal as the doctors could not manage to find a matching bone marrow transplant for her. She received an umbilical cord transplant as the an alternative late in August this year.

The young singer debuted in September last year on Broadway where she played four out of the eight shows of ‘The Lion King’ every week. She managed to win the coveted role by competing in an open audition held for child actors. She had to stop it all after being diagnosed with myeloid leukemia in the April of 2010.

BroadwayWorld.com was the one to break the news of her death to the world soon after she breathed her last at the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York, located at the New Hyde Park