It's funny that this QOTW should come up...
I'll post this on behalf of those concerned, as it's pretty damn unlikely that they hang around here.

For a number of years (10+), I've been a regular lurker in the car newsgroups on Usenet. Over the years, the crowd on there has remained pretty consistent. I've never met any of them in real life, but I feel like I know them all.

One of the longest-serving posters, a lad by the name of Dan, has struggled with cancer for the last few years, and he's been through a pretty rough time with it from what I can tell. He doesn't like talking about it, and never brings it up unless he's prompted to.

Like everone else on there, he's a bit of a car nut, and owns a very nice RenaultSport Clio R27. However, shortly after he bought it, his cancer was diagnosed as being terminal. A few weeks ago, the cancer spread to such an extent that he can no longer drive. As Dan is also a member of and a regular poster on a Clio messageboard, he put the car up for sale asking if anyone was interested, not mentioning the exact circumstances behind it - just that he was selling it due to illness. Today, he made the following post on Usenet:

****
There is a thread on ClioSport, started by me. A few people had been asking why the R27 had to go etc, and what was I ill with. Then one evening, I was feeling really down, so I thought, fuck it, I'll get it all out in words, and tell them. Felt really good to vent it all to what felt like a 'someone' to be honest.

The response over the past few weeks has been massive, 285 replies (inc a few from me answering/thanking people) and maybe 50 private messages, wishing me well, and saying 100% nice things and it's felt like I've had load of extra friends routing for me really almost! This was amazing, the way the club pulled round, and some of the fantastic offers of help and even a £300 Red Letter Day (which I couldn't, and wouldn't accept of course - although I have accepted a free Mug from the site admin haha!).

So, as if that wasn't enough (which it was many times over in my book), a young lad, can't have had a lot of money (has a 1.4 Clio), won £30k on the National Lottery Daily Play, then he proceeded, he said because of that thread and how lucky he felt, especially with there being some very sad stories in there from other people as well, to donate £10k, split between 3 cancer charities and one local (to him) hospice.

I just couldn't really think of words to reply for ages, I felt good for inspiring him, but obviously it was 100% him, I didn't suggest it or anything. So there you go, young lad with a 1.4 Clio, with a huge sound system (describes his car as excessively loud!) in, who you'd probably label as a worthless chav if you saw him driving around, along with all the replys, 100% restored my faith that there are still quite a few nice people left in the world :-) Even those who you'd least expect...

*****

Brought a tear to my eye, it did.
( rubberduck should only be used after consulting with your GP, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 17:40, 1 reply)

Fucking hell.
I need to stop reading these stories. I've been bawling all morning.

*click*
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 17:42, closed)