The fan that Tuomas wrote the lyrics about was Marc Brueland. You can hear him in the track, speaking. ("I would just like to think that....Not why did it happen to me, but why was I saved...What else can I do now?" "Being in the dark about something, I can't even tell you how scary it is. You don't know what's inside, you don't know what's going to happen to you. The best way to put somebody at ease is to inform them...Even if it's the grim truth...") Marc was a close friend of Tuomas and a huge fan of the band, they had him onstage at one point and dedicated 'Walking in the Air' to him. So it really wasn't just about 'somebody dying of cancer', it was about a close friend struggling with the knowledge that he would be dead soon, although it seems to me that part of it is Tuomas' own feelings about the situation.
The fan that Tuomas wrote the lyrics about was Marc Brueland. You can hear him in the track, speaking. ("I would just like to think that....Not why did it happen to me, but why was I saved...What else can I do now?" "Being in the dark about something, I can't even tell you how scary it is. You don't know what's inside, you don't know what's going to happen to you. The best way to put somebody at ease is to inform them...Even if it's the grim truth...") Marc was a close friend of Tuomas and a huge fan of the band, they had him onstage at one point and dedicated 'Walking in the Air' to him. So it really wasn't just about 'somebody dying of cancer', it was about a close friend struggling with the knowledge that he would be dead soon, although it seems to me that part of it is Tuomas' own feelings about the situation.