Studying for my run at the world record for “Most Trivial Pursuit 90’s Edition Computer Questions Answered Out of a Shuffled Deck Correctly In 30 Seconds” lead me to the story of Craig Shergold. According to Trivial Pursuit 90’s Edition, he’s the answer to “What brain-cancer patient recieved more than 350 million get-well cards, when a chain e-mail refused to die?”

I don’t know that I’ve even heard his name, so I read up on Wikipedia. Here’s what they say:

In 1989, Shergold, then aged nine, was diagnosed with what was thought to be terminal brain cancer. His family issued a chain letter^{[citation needed]}, requesting that greeting cards be sent to Shergold so that he could make it into the Book of Records. They neglected to put a time limit on the appeal and as a result, 19 million greeting cards were sent by the next year, and 35 million by the end of 1991. American billionaire John Kluge learned of Shergold’s plight, and arranged for him to have brain surgery
to remove the tumor, an operation that was successful.

What a great story! It goes on -

Nonetheless, the chain letter continued to make its way around the Internet and millions of greeting cards continued to flow to Shergold’s home. The family halted mail delivery, and later moved. The home was given its own postal code because of the volume of mail sent there.^{[citation needed]} Mail being sent to that address is now being recycled. The Book of Records has retired this record as they do not want anyone to try to top Shergold’s feat.

And closes with:

Craig is now a healthy adult and requests for the mail to stop.

Reminder: This Tuesday at Joe’s Pub I’ll be setting the world record for “Most Trivial Pursuit 90’s Edition Computer Questions Answered Out of a Shuffled Deck Correctly In 30 Seconds,” at the Universal Record Database Show, and all proceeds go to the “Yes We Care Soup Kitchen.” Details here.  I volunteered there when I lived in New Jersey, it’s a great cause, and as you can see I’m taking this seriously.