My ponderings during my 9 mile run today were inspired by an amazing young lady called Alice Pyne. I stumbled across her through setting up this Blog and searching for other Blogs with similar tags, sadly our matches were cancer and charity so you might well see where this is going.
In short Alice is a 17 year old girl who has terminal cancer (she lists her occupation as “full time cancer fighter”), having first been diagnosed at the tender age of 12. But instead of wallowing, at the age of 15 she set up a Blog as a way to communicate with her friends and to share her bucket list; things she wanted to achieve before she left our world. Unlike your average cider swilling 15 year old Alice’s list included the following as her top three:
- To get everyone eligible to join a bone marrow register
- To get EVERYONE to have a bucket list
- To get to the Royal Garden party in May
Sobering isn't it. Now think back to your 15 year old self and I dare you not to swallow hard.
When Alice launched her Blog back on 6th June 2011 no one, least of all her and her family, could have predicted the turn of events that followed. Through the magic of the interweb in just 2 days Alice's Bucket List had over 7,000 followers and lashings of comments from around the world with many promising to join bone marrow donation schemes in support of her wishes. By 9th June she was mentioned on This Morning and the Anthony Nolan bone marrow charity web site received 17 times its weekly web traffic over night which could only be attributed to Alice. 10th June and following a postscript on her Blog for people to sponser her sister in her Race fo Life taking place that Sunday, donations topped £10,000, the majority of which came from generous strangers touched by Alice and her story. Staggeringly by the 11th June this had reached the substantial figure of £30,000!
But as we know there is always evil around the corner and on 14th June there were countless clone sites claiming to be Alice and taking generous donations from innocent people for their own pockets. Seriously I still can’t believe this as I write it but it gets worse. On 19th June her charity was hacked and funds were stolen. Thankfully some wonderful strangers donated their time and skills to help Alice and her family secure and protect their Blog and charity site from further hacking.
What I find most remarkable is that what started purely as a means of communication and diary for very poorly 15 year old resulted in registrations for bone marrow donors increasing from 6,000 per year to over 40,000. A legacy to the wonderful and inspirational Alice.
But Alice isn’t alone. There are sadly thousands of other children fighting the cancer battle; some will make it but many won’t.
If this has touched you I ask you to please consider joining the Anthony Nolan register here or the British Bone Marrow Registry here. It is easy: apply, spit on a stick that they send to you, post it back, sit back and have a cuppa!
Whether you are eligible or not (there are varying criterias for the two registrys above) I really urge you to follow Alice's blog or Facebook page.
If you are left wanting to do more then how about you consider supporting me. I have a Vigin Money Giving site set up in aid of my two chosen cancer charities (Macmillan nurses and Breast Cancer Care) click here to donate.
Still want to do more? Then send me a message. Come watch me stagger around London and cheer me on. Or offer to help me organise my various charity raising balls, quiz nights and more; I need so much help from designs for invitations and more, help obtaining auction and raffle prizes, idea generators to come up with innovative ways to make everything more than just fabulous, ticket sales and coordination and much much more.
You could also share this page via your Facebook, Tweet about it, email it to friends and colleagues, talk about it... as Alice has proved the power of the Internet is huge. Everything counts and helps raise awareness, and funds, for an amazing cause.
One final thought. Cancer is a term we are all familiar with (some sadly more than others); something we live in fear of; and one day may need to fight.
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