What a 15-year-old's bucket list can teach us
Alice Pyne really wants a purple iPad. And unlike most 15 year olds, she'll probably get it. But most teenagers have their lives to go through gadgets. Pyne has terminal Hodgkin's lymphoma. After battling the disease for four years, she's been told her cancer is spreading.
So last week, the British teen started a blog called Alice's Bucket List, to round up the things she'd like to experience before she dies. They include the purple iPad, as well as entering her Labrador in a dog show, and binging on chocolate at the Cadbury factory. A few items like traveling to Kenya and training dolphins she acknowledges are impossible, due to her failing health.
But other wishes are coming true in the days since she posted her list. Since her first post went viral earlier this week, she's been flooded with emails and donations from strangers.
The Prime Minister gave her a shout out, so has Katy Perry and Justin Beiber. All that attention gave her the chance to cross off one item: meeting the band Take That. She's also brought public awareness to the first item on her list: "make everyone sign up to be an bone marrow donor."
Undoubtedly, her other minor goals (get a massage, go to a hair salon) have been offered by well-wishers. But Pyne, though grateful, wasn't looking for hand-outs when she took to the web. "There isn't a Paypal or Donate button on here, because I didn't mean for this to be such a big thing," she writes.
So instead of taking donations for herself, she's asked readers to fulfill a wish that's more lasting. She's raising money for sister's Race for Life run for bone marrow research. Her sister's original goal was to raise 1000 pounds. But since Pyne's bucket list gained world recognition, she's raised over 23,0000 pounds. It's a testament to how much one person can do in a life, even it it feels all too brief.
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