Re: help a dying child

Smegma Sam <spr...@interport.net> wrote:

>People I received this message today and decided to pass it on to you 
>all. Please pass it on to everyone you know on and off the net. I am 
>printing it out and making copies and distributing it to businesses, the 
>neighborhood and work. It breaks my heart that a child has to make a 
>dying wish so let's all help him achieve it. 
>if you have a heart, (and i know you guys do.....) read on and act on it, 
>please..

[snip]

No, PLEASE don't pass this on!  This is not legit - the real Craig
Shergold recovered many years ago, and is now a healthy teenager whose
family can barely throw out the cards fast enough.  Please pass on the
following info whenever you see this mentioned, and you'll save people
a lot of hassle.

-----------------------------clip 'n' save-------------------------

     Dying child seeks cards

I write with reference to the letter about Craig Shergold, the 7
year old
child collecting business cards.

This story has circulated around the world many times, and is now
seriously
out of date.  Craig Shergold is still alive, having had a series
of
successful operations in England and the USA.  His 14th birthday
was on the
24th June 1993.  His mother was interviewed last year by the BBC,
and Craig
was also asked to give a message.  It was: "Please, no more
cards".

When he was 7, Craig was suffering from what was thought to be a
terminal
brain tumour, and he wanted to get into the Guinness Book of
World Records
by getting over a million get well cards.  But once the cards
started
coming, they would not stop.  Craig had caught the imagination of
people
round the world.  The count reached 33 million cards on 17
November 1989,
which is when they stopped counting, as you can confirm by
checking the
1992 edition of the book.  Guinness no longer accept records in
this
category.

The problem is that cards still pour in, to his home, to the
Royal Marsden
Hospital for Sick Children in England where he was treated, and
to the
"Children's Make a Wish" Foundation in the USA which had launched
the
campaign in there.  Now people are sending postcards and business
cards
too.  It has become a nightmare for all concerned.  The
Foundation had to
get 40 volunteers to sort the 30,000 cards they were receiving
every week.

Back in England, Craig and his mother are still swamped with
several bags
of mail a day.  Volunteers from a local church come round each
week to help
sort it, and extract the family post and bills that are lost in
the
flood.   The rest is stored in bags in their garden until it can
be taken
away as scrap paper - they long since ran out of room in their
small
house.

As well as the family, good people everywhere are putting huge
efforts into
this, then being disillusioned.  I attach a story showing what
can happen.

If you want to help sick children, do make a donation to UNICEF
or the Red
Cross, or to a local charity or hospital.  And please, if you
want to help
Craig Shergold, pass on this letter to everyone you know and tell
them,

     "Please, no more cards".

     With best regards, 
          David Wright




Extract from The Oregonian, Wednesday January 8, 1992, page C8
(off AP):

Class collects 57,555 cards - all in vain

    Kennewick, Washington - a class of eight graders collected
57,555
business cards to help a seriously ill British boy set a world
record.

    It was a mistake.

    It turns out 12-year-old Craig Shergold of Carshalton, Great
Britain,
was collecting get-well cards, not business cards. Craig set the
record and
has since recovered from his illness.

    Too bad the students in Sharon Davies' class at Finley High
School
never got the message.

    The eighth-graders collected five giant garbage bags worth of
cards, no
two alike.  There are ones in Braille, on microfilm and in
Norwegian. Some
look like envelopes, others like chemical waste drums.  They're
printed on
paper, wood, and metal.

    Their collection started with a chain letter sent to Bill
Davies' fax
machine at the Boise Cascade Container Corp. plant in Wallula.

    The letter said Shergold had cancer and that he wanted to be
included
in the Guinness Book of World Records for "the largest number of
business
cards ever collected by one person".

    Davies mentioned it to his school-teacher wife, and her
students
started their three-month project.

    Shergold did make it into the record book for receiving 33
million
greeting cards.

    Meanwhile, the class is stuck with 57,555 business cards,
which
unfortunately isn't one for the books, according to Guinness
editor Mark
Young.  "It's a terrific effort on their part, but all in vain
I'm afraid,"
he said.

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