Yesterday an update showed up in my twitter feed that I retweeted without hesitation:
It had been retweeted by another friend and seemed a reasonable request so I immediately passed it along.
Problem is, Alice never wanted to “trend on twitter” — I discovered this reading another blog this morning. Shan was “outraged annoyed and sad” — and understandably so! It’s something that Mike and I frequently complain about: mouse-click activism, the idea that “we’re helping!” with a simple click of the mouse. You can even do it from your Blackberry™! Facebook is full of “join this group to protest” groups; on Twitter, people are regularly encouraged to add a ribbon or change the tint of their avatars to “show support.” For the most part, these empty gestures offer little more than a smug sense of satisfaction.
In this case there is, sadly, truth at the core of the story. There is a girl named Alice in the UK who is dying of cancer. She has a blog. It is heartbreakingly unfair. The only good thing here however is that social media is still a buzzword among old media so news of the #AliceBucketList hit the major news outlets and as a result, there’s been a blip in support for cancer research through this one girl’s decision to blog about her story.
I would bet, too, that there are people willing to make some of her actual bucket list wishes happen — things that you might expect a 15 year old to want:
- “To have a private cinema party for me and my BFFs”
- “To go to Cadbury World and eat loads of chocolate.”
- “To have a purple Apple iPad, but I’m not really allowed to put that on here and Mum is trying to borrow one”
She also wants “to make everyone sign up to be a bone marrow donor.” So while a game of digital telephone managed to distort Alice’s original wishes, there is an opportunity to take action that she will appreciate: if you can, sign up to be a bone marrow donor, or make a financial donation, or make a donation to cancer research and prevention.
Cancer sucks. It’s part of our lives and the constant flow of sad stories and brave children and survivors is so pervasive now that it just washes over me. This one, for whatever reason, this one stuck out. Consider this blog post part of my penance for the empty gesture I made last night with that retweet. Next step is to hand over cash to someone who can make a difference.