Swift wrote “Ronan” about a three-year-old boy named Ronan Thompson, who died of neuroblastoma after an eight-month battle in 2011. Ronan’s mother, Maya Thompson, who gets credit as a co-writer on the song, wrote about Ronan’s journey and the progression of his illness on a blog called Rockstar Ronan, which she now uses to write letters to Ronan about her life and his siblings.

Little did Maya know, Swift stumbled on the blog around the time Ronan died. She invited Maya backstage at her 2011 Speak Now Tour and they exchanged contact information. Shortly after, Swift told Maya she wrote “Ronan” as a tribute to her son and wanted to perform the song at a 2011 awareness fundraiser for Stand Up To Cancer. Maya recalled the phone call in a 2012 blog post:

‘I wrote a song for Ronan,’ [Taylor] said. The tears started pouring down my cheeks as soon as I heard her say those words. But her words didn’t stop there. Not only did she write a song for you, but she wanted to know if it would be alright to perform it on the nationally televised Stand Up 2 Cancer show which is on every major network and is seen in over 100 countries. She wanted to know if she could use a picture of you in the background while she sang the song. She wanted to make me co-author of the song with her. She talked about how reading this blog and following our story has inspired her, and how amazing she thinks I am and all I am doing to bring awareness to childhood cancer.

Swift has only performed “Ronan” a few times in her whole career, once on the Stand Up to Cancer telethon and a second time when the Thompson family went to her 1989 Tour in 2015. After meeting with the Thompson family, Swift asked if she could perform “Ronan” in his honor that night, and Maya wrote about the evening on her blog. Maya mentioned that she felt Ronan’s presence during the song, which she usually couldn’t listen to without sobbing.

Notably, Swift’s mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, shortly before she performed “Ronan” at the 1989 Tour — her battle inspired Swift’s raw 2019 song “Soon You’ll Get Better.”

After Big Machine Records sold Swift’s masters to mogul Scooter Braun in 2019, Maya expressed her fear and disappointment about Braun owning “Ronan” in two tweets. In July 2021, Maya announced on her blog that Swift rerecorded “Ronan” for Red (Taylor’s Version), allowing them to regain control of Ronan’s story.

All proceeds from “Ronan” went to charities that help fund cancer research, including the Thompson family’s own foundation they founded in Ronan’s name.