Avril Lavigne‘s back and looking healthier than ever! The “Complicated” singer returned to the stage for the first time in over a year at the 2015 Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles on Saturday, July 25,, marking her first major public appearance after her battle with Lyme disease.
Lavigne, 30, performed “Fly,” the empowerment anthem she wrote especially for the Special Olympics, as the Olympic torch was passed from athlete to athlete before it lit up the main cauldron at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
“This was a very beautiful night for me,” the singer Instagrammed after her performance. “It has been a difficult year fighting through Lyme disease, and I am so happy to have made it on stage tonight for the first performance in a year. Thank you for having me and please enjoy my song ‘Fly’. I wrote this song to encourage people who are facing challenges, to encourage strength and to empower.”
Though Lavigne is feeling well enough to return to the stage, she continues her Lyme disease battle, and revealed in June that she is halfway through treatment.
“I’m doing a lot better. Seeing a lot of the progress,” Lavigne said on Good Morning America, adding that she was largely bedridden in the months since her diagnosis. In addition to lots of rest, Lavigne’s treatment includes multiple antibiotics. “There is hope. Lyme disease does exist. And you can get better,” Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger‘s wife explained.
