Alice’s bucket list…

I spend a bit of time on Twitter and today a friend re-tweeted a message asking me to help a young girl named Alice “trend” by using the hashtag #alicebucketlist.

For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, trend lists change quite frequently depending on the most popular topics being discussed in 140 characters.  A hashtag allows users to categorize a topic so that by clicking on it, folks can then view what others are saying on the particular subject.

To be honest, I usually make up my own hashtags… which are sometimes the funniest part of my tweets such as “Not in the mood to workout today #neveram #lazybutt #arsegettingbigger”.  No one would possibly follow my ridiculousness… but I make myself laugh… and that’s all that counts!

I tend not to ever retweet when I’m asked… or for that matter, copy and paste Facebook status updates.  Seriously, I’m not really interested in “son week, sister week, niece… cousin… dog week… who makes up these weeks anyway… Hallmark?  Besides, while I love to brag about my kids, it seems to me that “daughters week” happened on at least 20 occassions so far this year and rather than copy and paste it to my status update… I’ll let them know how proud I am by blogging about them!

Today however, when I looked on Twitter to discover that Alice’s wish had indeed come true and she was officially “Trending”… I thought I’d click on the hashtag and see who this Alice actually was.

And she captured my heart.

Alice has written two posts since she started her blog Alice’s Bucket List… one on Monday and one today.  It’s gone nuts and at the moment over 59,000 people have viewed her profile alone leaving me to wonder how many hits have actually been on the blog!  For reference, 849 people have clicked on my photo to read my “all about me” profile and I’m at this blog thing over a year!  In her profile, Alice Pyne of Ulverston, Cumbria in the UK described her occupation as “full-time cancer fighter”.

Yup… fifteen year old Alice is losing her fight with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  After a lengthy four year battle with things not going well, this young woman thought she’d start a blog to write out her Bucket List… all amazing adventures for a typical 15 year old like entering her dog in a dog show, enjoying a photo shoot with her sister and friends, receiving a back massage, watching a private “cinema party” with her BFF’s and having a tour through the Cadbury chocolate factory to eat all the chocolate she could possibly desire.

She started the blog on Monday to share with family and friends and told them this…

“Most of you know that my scan at Alder Hey wasn’t very good and that the cancer is now spreading through my body. It’s a pain because there’s so much stuff that I still want to do. I guess that my particular cancer is made of strong stuff (which is hard because I know I gave it my all and I’m strong and determined too).”

Indeed Alice… that’s a pain!

Alice, you’ve captured our attention and hearts with your message reminding us that we only have “one life to live”!  I know that some of the things on your list won’t be able to be accomplished for the sake of time and logistics, but I hope you have the most amazing photo shoot full of laughter and fun, that you fill up on chocolate to your heart’s content, that you enjoy an amazing show with your best friends and all the popcorn you can eat, that you get more than one awesome back massage (because they really are wonderful) and that Mabel wins the gold star ribbon for having the most amazing owner in the entire world… and if you’re a little unsure… go ahead and ask her!

Good Luck on your journey as you tick off the items on your Bucket List with your Mom and Dad, your sister, your family and all of your friends.  Write often to tell us about your adventures… so we can all be reminded how very important it is to have fun, enjoy life… and live each day to the fullest!

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