Who Got The Great Idea For That Gold Ribbon?

When Kelsey Thorsen lost her battle with a resistant type of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, her mother was determined that her short life would not be in vain, and invented the concept of the gold lapel ribbon to promote awareness of the importance of childhood cancer.

Gigi Thorsen lost her seven-year-old daughter Kelsey to leukemia just 26 days after diagnosis.

During the dark months that followed Kelsey's death on July 28, 1996, she kept asking herself, "Why don't more people know about childhood cancer? How can we increase awareness of childhood cancer?"

Then one day she was on the Internet exchanging messages on the AOL bulletin board "Parents Of Kids With Cancer" when it struck her: "Let's start a ribbon for kids with cancer! Any input on color?"

And answers came back right away: "If red is for AIDS, and pink is for breast cancer...how about metallic?"

"How about gold?"

"We need a symbol to represent our kids and the enormity of the childhood cancer problem."

"Awesome. Let's go for it!"

Since then, Gigi has sent out more than 60,000 of the metal gold ribbon pins worldwide, with proceeds benefiting the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Candlelighters, which she has served as President.

She also started an e-mail list for parents who have lost a child to cancer and now corresponds with over 70 families throughout the world, encouraging them to be advocates for more research into childhood cancer, and more awareness and more support for the families of kids with cancer. "The ones who can move the mountains are the ones who've buried their kids. They have the time and motivation," she says. Information about this "DayByDay" list can be obtained at gigi@lgcy.com.

Gigi Thorsen and her husband Mark live in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. They are also the parents of Kiersten and Kendall. Gigi describes her first child Kelsey as a reader who read the Bobsey Twins and many other books during the last week of her life, a lover of animals, a fabulous big sister, and a very creative child who could "cut and draw and paste til the sun went down!" She says she was "obedient, calm, determined, giving, compassionate and brave...my angel forever." And as she extends her childhood cancer awareness campaign far and wide, she says she is determined that "My daughter did not die in vain!"

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