A Tribute to Alice Pyne

I usually keep my emotions regarding cancer and death under control. After losing six relatives, I have become quite skilled at remaining calm whilst discussing the subject. I don’t cry very much about my relatives, although I do think about them everyday. Doing this blog and the charity work makes cancer seem less scary, although I do hate it with a passion.

However, on Saturday night, whilst scrolling through my Twitter feed, I found it very hard to control my emotions when reading about the tragic and untimely death of Alice Pyne. I never met Alice but her death really hit me hard and was a stark reminder of how cruel this damn disease is and how many amazing people it has taken from the world. I wanted to do a blog post in tribute to this amazing young girl who did so much good when suffering from something so terrible.

You may have already heard of Alice. She was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma five years ago and sadly was told it was terminal. The incredibly brave young girl created her “bucket list” which was a list of all the things she wanted to do before she died. Now we live in a materialistic world and many of us dream of expensive holidays, expensive clothes and flashy cars. Not Alice, her list was humble and all about spending time doing amazing things with the people she loved. This was her list

* DONE - To go whale watching

* DONE - Visit Cadbury World

* DONE - To go to my school leaver’s prom

* DONE - To stay in the Chocolate room at Alton Towers

* DONE - To swim with sharks

* DONE ‘ish - To go to Kenya (got to go to Kent-ya)!

* DONE - To enter Mabel in a Labrador show

* DONE - Photo shoot with Milly, Clarissa, Sammie and Megs

* DONE - To have a private cinema party for me and my BFFs

* DONE - To design a Emma Bridgewater Mug to sell for charity

* DONE- To stay in a caravan

* DONE - To have a purple Apple iPad

* DONE - To meet Take That

* DONE - To have a nice picture taken with Mabel

* DONE - To have my hair done

* DONE - To have a back massage

Alice won a Pride of Britain award for her dedication to her campaign to get people to sign up to be bone marrow donors. FORTY THOUSAND people have signed up to the donor register directly because of Alice and her amazing efforts. That is an absolutely incredible legacy for a seventeen year old girl to leave behind. I’m hoping many more people will sign up in her memory and I have requested information from Anthony Nolan this morning to discover if I can donate myself because beautiful Alice’s story has touched me so much.

Alice leaves behind her devoted parents and her little sister Milly and my thoughts are with them at this horrific time. I hope they can take comfort from the fact that Alice made such a huge and significant mark on the world during her short life and that hopefully all these donors that have signed up because of her will help other children survive this horrific disease.

I think Alice was an amazing young girl, I can only hope to match her achievements in life. She was a role model to all and I sincerely hope she is at peace and free from pain now. If there is a heaven, I like to think Georgie has met her at the gates to show her around and look after her. I have an image in my head that all these beautiful and amazing people that have been stolen from us are all friends together somewhere safe and happy, awaiting the people they love.

RIP Alice – what a legacy you have left behind. xxx

For more information on Alice please visit her blog -  http://alicepyne.blogspot.co.uk/

For more information on Anthony Nolan and becoming a bone marrow donor – please visit http://www.anthonynolan.org/

xxx