Terminal Teen Asks for Postcards from Around World, Then One from Tom Hanks Shows Up

By Kayla Kunkel August 23, 2018 at 4:09pm

A simple birthday request “for a fighter” has gone viral, even catching the attention of the legendary actor Tom Hanks.

Aspen Kelly was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia when she was only 12 years old; it’s a cancer of the blood.

Even though this particular cancer has a very high cure rate, Aspen and her family are in for the fight of her life: chemotherapy, doctors visits, and extensive therapy included.

As she was thinking about her daughter’s upcoming birthday, Aspen’s mother, Vanessa, asked her what she would like. Normally she would go somewhere fun, but her blood counts are too low for doctors to feel comfortable with her leaving the hospital.

The soon-to-be-teenager decided that she wanted postcards from all over. So in July, Vanessa shared a post on her Facebook page asking people to send her fun postcards from all over the world.

“Since she can’t really travel unless her counts are up, she is hoping that maybe people can send her a post card from where they live in the country or all over the world,” the mom wrote. “She would love to see a beautiful place, or something cool and exciting from other places she’s never been to before.”

The goal was to get at least one postcard from each of the 50 United States and also one from each continent all before Aspen’s birthday.

The response was overwhelming. At the time of this article’s publication, the post had been shared 960 times. The postcards just began pouring in.

Vanessa told CBS News that they have received over 1,000 postcards. So far, they have received at least one postcard from each state and ones from 49 different countries.

One postcard, in particular, had Vanessa “geeking out.” Just a month after the original post was written, the very special postcard arrived in the mail.

The postcard came from Greece, which is impressive in its own right, but it was the person who sent it that made it stand out: Tom Hanks.

“This postcard is too awesome not to share, and I’m totally geeking-out right now,” Vanessa wrote, sharing a picture of the postcard. “Tom Hanks took the time to send Aspen a postcard from Greece!”

Hanks’ message was sweet and simple. “Aspen- I hope this arrives in time for your happy 13th BIRTHDAY! Love you!”

Vanessa is collecting all of the postcards to put into a box that she will wrap for Aspen to open on the big day.

This is such a sweet example of how social media can be used to enrich other’s lives. There’s no doubt that the teenager will be able to feel the love from all over the world on such a special birthday.

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