# Whatever Happened to Craig Shergold? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 26, 2000, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-craig-shergold/6625 "2000-01-26T13:46:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-craig-shergold/6625/1 "2000-01-26T13:46:00Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-craig-shergold/6625/2 "2000-01-26T16:00:00Z")
95% of the malignant tumor was removed and he is no longer ill. [Exerpt from a Chicago Tribune article](http://www.urbanlegends.com/classic/craig.shergold/craig_chicago_tribune.html) [Gene Spafford on Shergold](http://www.urbanlegends.com/classic/craig.shergold/craig_shergold_from_gene_spafford.html) * * * 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. ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-craig-shergold/6625/3 "2000-01-26T17:10:00Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-craig-shergold/6625/4 "2000-01-26T17:27:00Z")
My guess: he’s probably shunning publicity and wishing to God he’d never asked for get-well cards. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-craig-shergold/6625/5 "2000-01-26T20:46:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-craig-shergold/6625/6 "2000-01-26T20:59:00Z")
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](http://www.hep.net/documents/eegtti/eeg_82.html) * * * Elmer J. Fudd, Millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2000, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-craig-shergold/6625/7 "2000-01-28T14:42:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2000, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-craig-shergold/6625/8 "2000-01-28T22:23:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Alphagene: > \*\*95% of the malignant tumor was removed and he is no longer ill. > > \*\* What the – ? Hey, I want my card back then! * * * Love stinks! (Yeah, yeah!)