This story is about a year old, but it just pulls at our heartstrings!  We could all learn a lot from this little boy.

By Elisa Jaffe

BOTHELL, Wash. — The day I met Brenden Foster, I met an old soul in an 11 year old’s body.

“I should be gone in a week or so,” he said calmly.

When I asked him what he thought were the best things in life, Brenden said, “Just having one.”

I didn’t understand how this child, who was a year younger than my own son, could be so courageous facing death.

“It happens. It’s natural,” Brenden told me.

Three years ago, doctors diagnosed Brenden with leukemia. The boy who once rushed through homework so he could play outside found himself confined to a bed. But there was no confining his spirit.

“I had a great time. And until my time comes, I’m going to keep having a great time,” he said.

Brenden’s selfless dying wish was to help the homeless.

“They’re probably starving, so give’em a chance,” he said, “food and water.”

But Brenden was too ill to feed them on his own. So volunteers from Emerald City Lights Bike Ride passed out some 200 sandwiches to the homeless in Seattle.

Then Brenden’s last wish took on a life of its own.

A TV station in Los Angeles held a food drive. School kids in Ohio collected cans. People in Pensacola, Florida gathered goods.

And here in Western Washington, KOMO viewers from all over took part in the Stuff the Truck food drive in Brenden’s honor. Hundreds with generous hearts donated six and a half huge truck loads of groceries and more than $60,000 in cash to benefit Northwest Harvest and Food Lifeline.

Brenden touched hearts all over the world. His wish came true, and he lived to see it.

“He had the joy of seeing all of the beautiful response to his last wish,” said his grandmother, Patricia McMorrow. “It gives him great peace and he knows that his life has meaning.”

“He’s left a legacy and he’s only 11,” said his mother, Wendy Foster. “He’s done more than most people dream of doing just by making a wish.”

Days before dying, Brenden surprised us with a sudden burst of energy. He wanted to get off the oxygen, hop out of bed and go buy a video game. Wise beyond his years, but still a kid.

“I have been so blessed to have this child. A mother couldn’t ask for a better son,” Wendy said.

The B-Man, as his family called him, had one more wish before going: sprinkle wildflower seeds to save the bees. He had heard bees were in trouble.

Someone answered B-Man’s wish. A retired pilot asked his pilot and flight attendant friends to sprinkle wild flowers around the world, from Bali to Brazil, on Brenden’s behalf.

When asked what made him sad, Brenden said, “When someone gives up.”

Brenden Foster never gave up. Even as he clung to his last hours of life, Brenden kept giving.

“Follow your dreams. Don’t let anything stop you,” he said.

You can help us fight the battle against cancer today by purchasing the I’m Tired of Cancer bracelet. We give half the sale of every bracelet to Bogart Pediatric Cancer Research Program and Concern Foundation.

Living in the city could lead to certain common cancers being diagnosed at much later stages of their development, new research has found.

A study of residents of Illinois finds that city dwellers are more likely to have doctors spot breast, colorectal, lung or prostate cancer later in the disease’s progression than their peers residing in the suburbs or rural areas. The rates for these late-stage cancers were highest in Chicago, the most densely populated and urban of the areas in the analysis, and tapered off the more rural and sparse an area’s population became, according to the findings, which were based on a review of the 1998 to 2002 Illinois State Cancer Registry.

“The concentration of health disadvantage in highly urbanized places emphasizes the need for more extensive urban-based cancer screening and education programs, especially programs targeted to the most vulnerable urban populations and neighborhoods,” the study’s authors, Sara L. McLafferty of the University of Illinois and Fahui Wang of Louisiana State University, wrote in their article, to be published in the June 15 print issue of the journal Cancer.

Age and race may account for much of the geographical difference in when colorectal and prostate cancers were diagnosed while they played a smaller role in the timing of breast cancer detection, the researchers noted. Urban blacks, for example, were much more likely to receive a late-stage diagnosis while older people living in rural areas were more likely to have their cancer diagnosed early because, it is speculated, this group is likely to visit doctors more often and receive age-related screenings for various diseases.

For lung cancer, the authors found that age and race did not explain the geographic disparities for stage of diagnosis, leading them to guess that other factors might be responsible.

Source: Forbes.com