Have you heard about Alice? Maybe by now you have and if you haven't you probably would have heard about her soon even without my help. Alice is a 15 year old girl in UK who has been fighting cancer for four years. She is now terminally ill and has created a bucket list of things that she wishes to do during her remaining time. Alice started a blog about her bucket list and her quest to complete the items earlier this week and within days has gained thousands of supporters from all corners of the world.
As I write, Alice's blog has over 10,000 followers and she has nearly 8,000 followers on twitter (she just joined last night). Her sister, Milly, has raised over 24,000 pounds for Cancer Research UK through her Race for Life page. Alice has been trending on twitter and is now drawing attention from the media.
It's fascinating to read through the comments on Alice's blog posts. Friends, relatives and total strangers offer her everything from moral support to suggestions on how to achieve her goals to money to help her complete them. Readers offer free massages, haircuts and photos shoots (all items on Alice's list) as well as contacts to movie theaters. Many readers comment that they have tweeted Cadbury World or contacted Alton Towers about her wishes to visit. One friend wrote:
Hi Alice,
Can not manage swimming with sharks but I can organise feeding sharks!
Mind your fingers x
This weekend, Alice will get to cross one thing off her list after she goes to see (and apparently will meet) British pop group, Take That.
The first item on Alice's wish list, however, is one that many of us can help her out with. In Alice's words she wants "to make everyone sign up to be a bone marrow donor." In the UK, Alice is supporting The Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Register. Here in the US we can support Alice by signing up with The National Marrow Donor Program. The process is simple. If you are eligible to donate marrow, you simply sign up and are tested to determine your compatibility. If at any time you are a possible match for a person needing a marrow transplant, you are contacted and further tested. If you are the best match for that person you undergo a simple out-patient procedure that could save someone's life. In Alice's words once again:
I'm excited about the things I am going to be doing, but the biggest thing has to be all the people who are joining bone marrow donation schemes because of me. I read on someones post that it is really painful. Well, mostly bone marrow is taken as cells via a needle and I have had it done. I was 13 when I had my first transplant and because they used my own cells, I had to have them taken out (they call it harvested) and then stored and put back in some months later after more chemo. I'm not just saying this, but it really didn't hurt at all. I had a tiny bruise from the needles and that was about it. I was a bit tired too but I'm always tired so that may not have been the cells.
So go ahead and check out Alice's blog. If nothing else, it might make you feel a little warmth for this young girl and all the love that the world is giving her. It might inspire you to knock a few things off your own bucket list. Or it might inspire you to knock something off hers by joining a marrow registry. Or it might just make you smile.
Links:
http://alicepyne.blogspot.com
http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/millypyne1908/1
Follow Alice on Twitter: Alice_Pyne
UK: www.anthonynolan.org and www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/bonemarrow
US: www.marrow.org
