Courtesy Anne Schofield(NEW YORK) — When Becca Schofield, was told last November the brain cancer she had fought for nearly two years was terminal, the 17-year-old said she decided to create a bucket list.
When an overwhelming number of family and friends wanted to help with her bucket list, Becca, of Riverview, New Brunswick, thought of a way to help other people.
Becca brainstormed with her dad, Darren Schofield, and came up with a hashtag, #BecccaToldMeTo, to give people a way to help others, and inadvertently help Becca, too.
“Everyone wants to help, everyone wants to do things and a lot of [my bucket list] is I want to revisit places I’ve been, eat my favorite foods, watch my parents’ favorite movies with them,” Becca told ABC News. “It’s not stuff people can help with.”
“This is something other people can do and feel like they’re doing stuff for me,” she said. “I love that it’s not just for the recipient and not just for the person who’s giving. It’s also for me.”
Becca, who underwent a seven-hour surgery after her first brain tumor was discovered in February 2015, took to Facebook last month to tell friends and family about the hashtag. Doctors said Becca has three months to a year to live, the family said.
The hashtag was first created as simply a way to celebrate Becca’s last day of radiation, on Dec. 16. Now, more than one month later, Becca receives notifications from people around the world.
“Every morning I wake up and I’m delighted that it’s still happening,” she said. “I feel like a kid on Christmas every single day. … Every day is a gift to know that it’s happening.”
Becca’s parents said they consider themselves as inadvertent beneficiaries of the random acts of kindness.
“It makes more than three people feel good because me and my husband watch Becca’s face and see the smile on her face,” Anne Schofield told ABC News. “In the evening, she’ll sit and look on her iPad and see what people have posted.”
Schofield recalled a moment with her husband recently when they told Becca that they could have never imagined how quickly her acts of kindness hashtag would spread.
Schofield said her daughter’s response to them was, “You just don’t dream big enough.”
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