I had the privilege of meeting a special person yesterday.
Francesca Taylor, or Frannie as she is known, is a very bright 11-year-old who was diagnosed with a bone tumour in her leg in February last year.
We featured her story in the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend as part of the
build-up to our Big Charity Auction.
Readers can collect auction dollars printed on page A2 and use them to bid for amazing prize packages worth more than $70,000 on April 28.
Proceeds from newspaper sales go to the local the Child Cancer Foundation.
Regional TV channel tvCentral interviewed Frannie and I about the auction yesterday.
Frannie told us about her brave cancer fight.
It was sobering as she described how she had a sore leg and went to doctor after doctor. It was also sobering when she told of learning she had cancer at Starship.
It's something no child should have to hear.
I could not help but be moved as she explained what all the different beads she had been given as a child cancer patient meant.
The yellow ones represented nights in hospital.
There are 142 of them.
This brave and courageous young person put a lot of things into perspective for me.
We all have challenges and issues to contend with in life. We can all have a bad day at the office. But it hit me yesterday just how so many of life's problems are actually trivial compared to what she and other very sick children go through.
We can make a difference.
Related story: Beads mark brave journey to cancer recovery
