BROWNFIELD — As she undergoes treatment for leukemia, Melanie Bishop, an 8-year-old from Brownfield, has a simple request this Christmas: She would love to receive Christmas cards. A lot of them.
Her address: Melanie Bishop, 46 Pig St., Brownfield ME 04010.
Melanie was diagnosed with leukemia in April. Her mother, Kimberly Bishop, said Melanie has been through the first part of her treatment, with many days spent at the clinic or hospital.
Melanie Bishop, 8, wants Christmas cards this holiday season. Photo provided by Kimberly Bishop
“She was heading into November and December, the hardest part of her treatment, not feeling the greatest,” Kimberly Bishop said.
At a benefit dinner in July, someone had donated Patriots tickets. Melanie drew the name of the tickets’ lucky winner, who then gifted them back to Melanie and her family.
“She was supposed to go the game yesterday,” Kimberly Bishop said Sunday. “At her doctor’s appointment on Tuesday, they said she couldn’t go, that she was too ill to go.”
Kimberly Bishop said she wanted her husband and three boys to go, but needed to come up with a way to keep Melanie’s spirits up during the hardest parts of her treatment.
“I thought, ‘I need to come up with something through the weekend and up until Christmas that’s going to make her smile,'” Kimberly Bishop said.
So she made a post on Facebook asking for Christmas cards. It blew up. New stations picked up on the story, and someone built a gigantic card out of lumber — donated by Home deport — in the Bishops’ yard.
So far, Melanie has received about 500 cards. But the more, the merrier.
“She’s so excited to open up all these cards,” Kimberly Bishop said. “She loves Christmas so much. She just got a bunch yesterday. She opened all of them up yesterday. And she was up and ready this morning to open some cards.”
Kimberly Bishop said the cards provide joy and a needed distraction from Melanie’s treatment.
“We’ve been receiving lots of cards,” Kimberly Bishop said. “She’s busy opening them — she loves it. She’s not thinking about treatment. It’s great. You see her eyes light up when she sees the mail coming.”
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