Teens who post wish lists on the Internet don't often get much attention. But when that list is posted by a 15-year-old girl with terminal cancer and not much time left, it's amazing what can happen next.
Alice Pyne's "bucket list" of the 17 things she'd like to do before she "kicks the bucket" was loaded up only four days ago, but it has already become an Internet hit
The blog has seen thousands of visitors in just four days. And #alicesbucketlist became a trending topic on Twitter across the world on Thursday.
The sponsor page for Pyne's little sister, who's taking part in a charity run for cancer research this weekend, has also been a huge hit. Milly Pyne had hoped to raise 1,000 pounds ahead of the run; instead, she's raised 21,000 pounds -- and counting.
Alice, who has battled Hodgkin's lymphoma for four years, has been profiled by the BBC a number of times as she searched for a bone marrow donor. But the teen recently learned her cancer has spread throughout her body.
"Now I know that the cancer is gaining on me and it doesn't look like I'm going to win this one," she blogged Monday.
So she has decided to make a list all the things she wants to do before she dies. The list includes meeting pop band "Take That" -- which she will do this weekend. She also wants to swim with sharks, and to stay at the chocolate room at Alton Towers Hotel in Alton, England.
In a perfect world, she'd also like to be a dolphin trainer and travel to Kenya. But Alice says she realizes she now can't do those things because she's simply too sick.
At the top of Pyne's wish list, though, is her desire for everyone to sign up to be a bone marrow donor. Bone marrow transplants can often send lymphoma patients into remission, but locating a suitable donor can be difficult.
(Canadians who'd like to put their names on a bone marrow registry can do so through One Match, run by Canadian Blood Services.)
Alice says she‘s been amazed by the response.
"Thank you so much for all your lovely messages to me," she writes on her blog. "I don't sleep very well and I sat up all night reading them as they came in from all over the planet, every single one, and they have made me smile so much so that is a good thing."
"It also looks like the other things I wished to do are being organised so thank you to everyone for that," she adds. "I feel a very lucky girl."
