Avril Lavigne has penned an emotional letter to fans announcing her comeback, five years on from her last album, after a difficult battle with Lyme Disease.
"Those were the worst years of my life as I went through both physical and emotional battles," Lavigne wrote in a letter on her website.
The 'Sk8er Boi' singer says she wrote and recorded her upcoming single, 'Head Above Water', from her sick bed during "one of the scariest moments of my life".
"I had accepted death and could feel my body shutting down. I felt like I was drowning," she wrote.
"Like I was going under water and I just needed to come up for air. Like I was in a river being pulled in a current."
Feeling "unable to breathe", Lavigne says she prayed to God as she wrote her next single, while in her mother's arms.
The 33-year-old pop star also took the opportunity to warn against the dangers of Lyme Disease, a debilitating bacterial infection that is carried by ticks.
"A single bug bite can f**k you up hard," Lavigne wrote. She added that she had started a foundation to bring awareness to the severity of the disease and provide prevention resources.
In 2015, the songstress tearfully told ABC it took over eight months for her to get a diagnosis.
Now she says she's "taking her life back".
"I wish for this all to touch you, to bring you strength, to lift you up, to inspire and to encourage you," Lavigne continued.
"I want more than ANYTHING to be back up on stage."
Last year, Lavigne joined her ex-husband, Nickleback frontman Chad Kroeger at his concert to perform their song 'Rockstar'. The on-stage appearance was her first in three years.
Newshub.
