I had never heard of Lupus until my childhood friend Lucy was stricken with the disease. She was diagnosed in 2004, but I learned of her condition only after it worsened a few years later. Beatles fans most likely remember Lucy as the girl in my childhood drawing, who inspired my Dad to write “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” But to me, she was just my trusted partner-in-crime at Heath House Nursery School in Surrey — giggling as I jumped into a freezing-cold swimming pool or throwing paint at me (and I at her) after we’d been separated for being naughty.
I co-wrote the song “Lucy” that year with James Scott Cook to benefit St. Thomas’ Lupus Trust in the U.K. and the Lupus Foundation of America (LFA). In 2010, in tribute to her, I helped establish the Lucy Vodden Research Grant Award. A year later, I became a Global Ambassador for the LFA.