Pink Just Made a Terminally Ill Fan’s Day With Sweet Gesture

Elite runner Diane Berberian has achieved many milestones as she battles cancer, but it wasn’t until late last month that she got to cross off one dream she didn’t think was possible, meeting her favorite singer Pink. The Grammy winner joined Berberian, a fellow Pennsylvania native, for a Zoom call that included an impromptu performance of “We Are The Champions.” Berberian is dying of bone cancer, but that hasn’t stopped her from crossing off items on her bucket list this year.

Berberian is a big Pink fan and told the “Get the Party Started” signer she often starts her day with a Pink song. “When I race, it’s always a Pink song,” the triathlete said. Pink told Berberian she is a “legend” and has a “kind of bravery that I don’t understand.” The singer added, “You’re bringing comfort to other people while you’re walking. You’re walking through this.” During the half-hour Zoom call, Pink sang “We Are The Champions” for Berberian.

On Nov. 27, Berberian shared a portion of the call on her Facebook page. “THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE TIME TO TRY AND MAKE CONNECTIONS… OUR DREAM CAME TRUE!!!!! Pink sang ‘We Are the Champions,’” Berberian wrote. Berberian later told NBC News she admires Pink as “a woman who seeks her truth; she’s strong, she’s bold and that’s who Philly girls are.”

Last month, Berberian took part in the Philadelphia Marathon with the help of friends and family, who pushed her in a special cart. “I have a tattoo it says, ‘She believed she could…so she did.’ That’s my line,” she told 6ABC. “So we have shirts now that they will all wear… on the back, (it reads) ‘And when she couldn’t, we pushed her to the finish line.’”

In 2020, a doctor told Berberian she only had a month to live after bone cancer spread to her liver. Since then, she has been busy crossing off items on her bucket list. She had a day named after her in Boston, where she threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park before a Boston Red Sox game. A few days before the marathon, she dropped the first puck before a Philadelphia Flyers game. She ran the marathon with the help of 20 friends and family.

“It’s me leaving, I say my own ashes, but my energy, my spirit. I’m leaving it on the streets of Philadelphia,” Berberian told 6ABC when asked why she needed to do the marathon. “That’s how I picture it. I’m leaving my life out there, my energy. For everybody. Everybody that runs the streets of Philadelphia now will have Diane Berberian with them.”

A few weeks before meeting with Berberian on Zoom, Pink underwent hip surgery at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado. The singer told fans on Instagram she expected to be on crutches for six weeks while she makes a full recovery. In a comment that foreshadowed her reaction to speaking with Berberian, Pink told fans she is “impressed by those that face real, hard challenges, and alchemize their situation into something magical, or meaningful.”