Arca de Noé

For most of us, birthday cards are a nice gesture. But for Shane Bernier, every card will mean the world -- as in world record.

Shane, a cancer patient at CHEO, will turn eight on May 30 and all he wants is a card from as many people as possible so he can set a Guinness world record.

There is no actual record for most birthday cards received in a single year, but another child who had cancer holds a greeting card record of sorts. Between his eighth and 22nd birthdays, he received 350 million get well cards.

Guinness is considering whether Shane's idea could be considered a different category.

The quest started when Shane told his mother how he loved receiving cards in the hospital. He later told her he'd love to get lots and lots of birthday cards in May.

His grandfather and his mother let all their friends and acquaintances know and that's when the world record quest began. Now, between the Internet, radio and television coverage, his mother, Nathalie, figures they've collected 10,000 and the cards keep coming. Every day, they receive about 1,000 more.

"Everywhere he looks, there are cards," Ms. Bernier said yesterday when she and Shane returned to their Lancaster home from CHEO. "They're in the living room, dining room. There are boxes of them everywhere, all over the place."

They can't display them all, but Shane opens every envelope and reads the cards that are written in French. His mother and grandparents read the English ones to him. He displays his favourites, including Spider-Man cards and ones with pop-up features.

Ms. Bernier admits it takes a lot of time to get through them, "but it makes him happy, so we don't care."

Shane was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia three years ago and had early remission, but then relapsed in July 2006, just 22 weeks short of his treatment protocol, which was supposed to have finished at Christmas.

Now he's receiving stronger chemotherapy until the end of June and then he'll be in a maintenance program with weaker chemo into 2008.

If the chemo doesn't work, he might have to have a bone marrow transplant at some point. His six-year-old brother, Jacob, is a match.

Shane's weekly treatment doesn't make him throw up, but it often gives him a fever, which means he ends up in hospital so that he's not exposed to infections that could make him sicker.

After this round of treatment, he has an 80-per cent chance of being OK for the rest of his life, Ms. Bernier said.

When he's well, Shane loves to play road hockey and baseball and listen to "the oldies" music from the 1950s and '60s. "He doesn't like the new stuff," said Ms. Bernier, who is a single parent.