Craig was the boy with a brain tumor who wanted to get into the Guiness Book of World Records for receiving the most get-well cards. Due to massive international publicity, he received over 33 million cards between 1989 and 1991, got in the book, and had an operation to remove the tumor in March 1991. (All facts from Jan Harold Brunvand’s new book, Too Good To Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends, along with a discussion of the various ULs that mutated away from the original true story.)
Brunvand, writing in 1999, doesn’t update the kid’s story, but does give the impression that he had a successful surgery and, thus, wasn’t dying of a brian tumor anymore. Does anyone know what happened to him? (He’d be about 18 now, and he lived in Carshalton, Surrey in the UK as of 1991.) This is pure nosiness on my part: I just wonder if he’s a lager lout or a Cantabridgian now (or somewhere in between).
…but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans!
95% of the malignant tumor was removed and he is no longer ill.
Exerpt from a Chicago Tribune article
Gene Spafford on Shergold
I used to rock and roll all night and party every day. Then it was every other day. Now I’m lucky if I can find a half an hour a week in which to get funky.
Thanks, but I did know the UL is still floating around (it’s one of those, like the pop-tops for dialysis UL, that re-emerges every year or two). Both of those articles are themselves a bit dated (the first and more recent one was last modified in 7/98, and the article itself seems to be from '96), and are mostly about the postal problems caused by the UL.
I know all that, but I’m wondering (impertinently, I’m sure) about the kid himself. He’s now 18-20, an adult, and tales of him as a 7-year old dying boy are still circulating around the world. What does he do now? We know the legendary Craig Shergold, but who is the real Craig Shergold today? (I admit, it’s a nosy question about a guy who has already had more media attention than he probably wanted, but the story as it stands lacks closure.)
I did a quick 'net search, and all I came up with are “he’s not 7, he’s not dying, it’s a UL now” sites. Well, now that we know what Craig Shergold isn’t, how can we find out what he is? It seems a natural for a “Where Are They Now” kind of TV piece/magazine article, doesn’t it? (It’s not my end of publishing, or I’d pitch it to people.)
…but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans!
My guess: he’s probably shunning publicity and wishing to God he’d never asked for get-well cards.
I wonder if he really had a cancerous tumor.
That is what was reported, but I never saw anything quoting a doctor as saying specifically what he had.
I know that even a growing brain tumor can be life-threatening for obvious reasons, but there’s still a difference. That doesn’t make it malignant/cancerous.
Some millionaire (not me)flew him to the United States where the rest of the tumor was removed. He’s in his teens and healthy now, and makes frequent requests to the public to “Cut it out! Stop sending the damn cards!”
.http://www.hep.net/documents/eegtti/eeg_82.html
Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.
BTW, Craig Shergold’s tumor–while life-threatening because of its location–was not cancerous, as has been previously diagnosed. It did indeed turn out to be benign.
What the – ? Hey, I want my card back then!
Love stinks! (Yeah, yeah!)