Jennifer Weiss says her friend Sonnet Force saved her life not once, but twice.

The first was with the generous donation of Force's liver to save Weiss from a rare form of cancer. But it's the second gift, that of music through the Singspiration Singers choir group, that Weiss says profoundly transformed her life.

"It transformed me from being a person with too many medical issues to even start to list -- and that being my identity, really -- to a person that all of a sudden I just feel more revitalized, full of energy, happier . . . My level of happiness went up considerably," says Weiss.

The 39-year-old North Vancouver mother found joy in music 6½ years after she was first diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer.

At just 32 years old and six weeks after the birth of her daughter, Kennedy, doctors found Weiss had a neuroendocrine tumour, the same type of cancer with which Apple CEO Steve Jobs was diagnosed.

The prognosis for Weiss was grim.

"A lot of thoughts go through your mind. Your thoughts are just, 'Oh my God, am I going to be here for my child, to see her grow up?" recalls Weiss, who was diagnosed in May 2003.

Weiss underwent surgery to remove pancreatic cancer but, a year and a half later, the cancer was in her liver. More surgery and six months of chemotherapy followed but, still, the tumours persisted and returned to her liver.

But renowned North Vancouver oncologist Dr. Paul Klimo suggested a liver transplant might be the cure.

Though transplants are rarely performed on patients with metastasized cancers, Weiss's cancer was so rare and slow-growing that doctors agreed it might be a workable solution. But, first, Weiss would need to find a donor.

In July 2006, Weiss spent six hours crafting a letter to family and friends, explaining the situation and that she was in search of a living donor.

It was a difficult letter to write -- "I mean, you're asking someone to lay down their life for you" -- and she ended it with an emphasis that she understood if people couldn't come forward and she'd be grateful enough if they just signed up to be an organ donor.

Remarkably, 12 people stepped forward.

Six were matches. In the end, her friend Force was chosen.

"It just really shows you the true self, that selflessness [in people]," says Weiss.

On Weiss's daughter's fourth birthday, the women went into surgery. Unfortunately, complications followed and Weiss had to undergo a second liver transplant, this time the organ from a deceased donor.

Force, too, had complications and required further surgery, but the mother of two boys says she never questioned her decision.

"There's always a risk. You get in a car and you could get schmucked," says Force.

Force credits a year-long experience singing with the North Vancouverbased Singspiration Singers choir.

Through music, Force says, she worked through her own issues of trust and emerged a more confident, joyful person. And so when the opportunity came up to help her friend, she stepped up without hesitation.

"I felt I'd really grown myself through that choir experience and connected with my spirituality and was able to offer myself in that way to Jen," she says.

The Singspiration Singers, a non-audition choir, was founded 20 years ago by musician and composer Julie Blue of North Vancouver.

Force suspected that what the choir had done for her would also work for Weiss, who had once performed in restaurants and a choir group in Seattle.

Three years after Force first suggested the choir to Weiss, she finally joined last September and discovered a part of herself she had lost long ago.

"I think I have found something that I had once lost and I didn't even really understand that would bring me so much joy," says Weiss.

Blue, who is not a registered music therapist but believes in the simple power of song and vibration, says she has watched many people undergo healing through the choir.

"I believe that people find healing there because of breathing, because of releasing tension in the body, because of bringing through a positive message through the words that we're singing, because of being in a surround or community of people who accept them exactly as they are," says Blue, 48.

For Weiss's part, a suppressed immune system means medical issues are an ongoing problem (she is going on to her 10th surgery), but she was compelled to share her experience in the hopes of inspiring others to find joy.

"You may have cancer, you may have stress, you may have divorce, you may have financial catastrophe. Whatever your problems are, what I want to share with the world is that through music, and just sound, people can find healing," she says.

- - The Singspiration Singers perform at 7 p.m. Saturday at Mt. Seymour United Church in North Vancouver. For more information, visit www.julieblue.com.