Millions of people have been moved by a woman serenading a cancer patient on her final journey home in an ambulance.

Yvon Kanters, from the Netherlands, studied to be a social worker, and in 2020 enquired in a local nursing home about helping out as a volunteer during the pandemic.

A staff member knew that the 26-year-old had an incredible voice and asked her to sing for a dementia and Parkinson's patient who appeared to be struggling with isolation due to not being able to communicate but who was known to love opera music.

And as she sang an opera song for him, Kanters told Newsweek, "he looked at me and he was pointing with his finger towards me, like 'you are singing for me.' And then with the same finger he showed his tears, like 'you're bringing me to tears.'"

"I really saw a new way of connection, and that music is really a universal language," she said. "We can speak with anyone."

A video of Kanters singing for the elderly man went viral, and more and more nursing homes began reaching out to her to sing for them-followed by hospitals, who asked her to sing for those getting cancer treatment or dialysis.

Now, close to 4 million people have seen Kanters use her voice to serenade a woman with the patient and her husband's favorite song as she made her final journey home after learning there was no more treatment available for her cancer.

In an emotional video shared to Kanters' TikTok account @yvoonkanters on February 22, Kanters wrote: "She chose this song for her final journey home."

With the woman facing away from the camera, lying in the non-emergency ambulance bed, Kanters belted out "The Power of Love" by Jennifer Rush, famously covered by Celine Dion.

"When we walked into the room, she was there with her husband and was very optimistic, she was very full of life," Kanters told Newsweek.

"We brought her to the ambulance and then asked her, 'I'm a singer and I'm coming along for the day, is there something you want to hear?' She and her husband, they love each other-their love is so visible. She said she and her husband's song was 'The Power of Love.'"

"So I sang that for her and she was in tears. She got to cry without telling us why she cried, but the emotions were there."

Kanters added that when they arrived at the woman's home, she belted out "Dancing Queen," as the husband and wife were longtime ABBA fans.

TikTok users were left in tears at Kanters' video. One wrote: "I can't sing nearly as well as you, but I firmly believe in the power of music and I always ask my patients what they'd like to hear in the back of the ambulance. What an angel."

"Tell me I'm not the only one crying," another person wrote.

"This isn't fair you've got a 59 year old male sobbing here. This is just beautiful, you have the voice of an angel," a commenter said.

And as one put it: "This needs a warning, I'm at work crying."

Kanters told Newsweek she grew up in a musical family, with her mother and sisters all playing music and her father driving the family to different concerts and practices.

She added that her father has a muscle disease, and this is "a part of my story-that I know what it's like to have a parent who is unfortunately sick."

"That's also why I empathise so much with children who have a parent with dementia, or cancer, because I know what it is like as a kid to see your parent like that," she said.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, music can enrich the lives of people with Alzheimer's disease by allowing for self-expression and engagement. Even in late-stage Alzheimer's, a person may be able to tap a beat or sing a song recognized from childhood. If possible, the person should be allowed to choose the music themselves.

Kanters isn't sure where her musical career will bring her.

"I wanted my music to be meaningful, and that could be in all different kinds of ways," she said. "But this-what I'm doing right now-I see what the music does to people, and I think it really brings them something.

"I'm not sure if I want to be really big, and have a huge concert or something. I know that [it can still be meaningful] when you do a big concert, but the one-on-one contact where you really can be there with someone, that gives me so much satisfaction. And I think that's beautiful."

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