June 9, 2011
Teen cancer patient’s bucket list popular on internet
Alice and her dog Mabel Photo by London Media
Advised by her mother that life is what you make it, 15 year old Alice Pyne decided to pen a bucket list of things to do before she dies of cancer.
She posted her candid writings on a blog which on Wednesday, Twitter trended as one of the most talked about subjects on the social networking site that has an estimated 200 million users.
By Thursday morning #alicebucketlist was the third most talked about term in the world.
Thousands of users including celebrities like Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand and Hollywoodactor Channing Tatum have alerted users to Alice’s blog, turning it into one of the most talked about subjects in Britain.
Alice, who is from Ulverston in North West England has been battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma for the past four years and writes that “now I know that the cancer is gaining on me and it doesn’t look like I’m going to win this one 😦 I’m hoping to write in here as much as I can and I’m also going to show my bucket list which I’m trying to get done before I have to go. Hopefully, I’ll update as I tick each one off the list :)”
Alice has said she’s overwhelmed by the unexpected worldwide support. So far thousands of people have commented on her blog.
On Wednesday, her MP John Woodcock raised the issue with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
“At the top of the list is a call to make everyone sign up to be a bone marrow donor, so will he work with the leader of the opposition and I to address why too few people are currently on this life-saving register?”
Cameron responded that “will certainly do that”.
The popularity of her blog may help her achieve some of her targets, as twitter users urged each other to donate bone marrow, to aid Alice in achieving her second goal of getting every one to “sign up to be a bone marrow donor.”
Also on her list is to go swimming with sharks, meet the band Take That and to “have a nice picture taken with Mabel” her dog.
But Alice says she doesn’t expect to do everything on her list like travelling to Kenya or training dophins due to being sick.
The idea of a bucket list was made popular by the 2008 film of the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman who acted as terminally ill patients who set out to fulfill their life’s dreams before ‘kicking the bucket.’
Alice said it was her mother who encouraged her to make the now popular list.
“Mum always tells me that life is what we make of it and so I’m going to make the best of what I have and because there were so many things I still wanted to do, mum suggested that I turn my ideas into a bucket list.”
You can read Alice’s blog at http://alicepyne.blogspot.com/.
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