Danny Nickerson, a little boy from Foxborough, MA who is battling a brain tumor, has just turned six-years-old. And for his birthday, he received over 100,000 cards and packages from people around the world.
He is also having two birthday parties today – one at Gillette Stadium and another at home with his family. The party at Gillette Stadium is a “public safety” themed 6th birthday party, and police and fire officials from around New England will be attending. Around 200 police, EMS, and fire vehicles will be driving to Gillette Stadium.
Last October, Danny was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Doctors have said that it is inoperable, and is highly resistant to chemotherapy. For his birthday on July 25th, Danny asked only for cards with his name on them, as he recently learned how to read his own name.
“He can recognize his name now,” Carley Nickerson, Danny’s mother, said. “When he saw his name on the package from magical fairies on Easter, he was so happy.”
Danny’s family decided to reach out using social media to see if people wanted to send the little boy cards. The response was incredible, and better than anything his family could have ever hoped for.
“This is unbelievable,” said Carley. “We’re going to be opening these for a long time.”
Danny has received over 100,000 cards and packages, which were delivered to a P.O. box his family set up in Danny’s name. His family’s post asking for help went viral on a number of social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, which prompted such huge results.
“It’s like Christmas in July here for us. This would be something we’d be dealing with around Christmas time for this sort of volume,” said Foxborough Postmaster Tom Driscoll.
One thread on Reddit had people explaining what types of cards they had sent to Danny. The post includes a pictures of an awesome Mario and Lego card that someone made for Danny. According to Carley, Danny is a big fan of those two things!
Danny has been getting cards from people all over the world, including from places like Australia and India.
“Yesterday, I picked up a card from India and I started to cry. I cried because of two things: one because of Danny, obviously, and two because someone from India who has no idea who this little boy is, took the time to draw him a nice hand written card,” said Danny’s Uncle Marcus Moore.
On Friday, Danny and his friends and family went to the post office to pick up all the mail Danny had received, and the amount of cards and packages was unbelievable. His family took a video a few days ago of an extremely happy Danny sitting on a pile of birthday presents in the post office, which can be seen below.
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