By Darren McSweeney

Last updated at 14:50, Monday, 30 April 2012

“So many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.”

Darren McSweeney

So wrote Lewis Carroll as the young girl began her adventures – yet this could so easily apply to our own Alice in Wonderland.

Alice Pyne, the inspirational young local woman.

When I say local, I mean in a geographical sense, as Alice, with her unshakable character, is now a global phenomenon.

I don’t know Alice. (I “may” have had a crush on her Mum at school, but that was so many years ago.)

Living in the Twittersphere though, I couldn’t help but come across her and join her band of 20,000+ followers.

A young woman, who has been through so much, suffered so many knock-backs and yet still finds the time and energy to stimulate people the world over, is a shining example to us all.

This last week, a team of local cyclists have been pedalling from Land’s End to John O’Groats, raising funds for Alice’s new charity – “Alice’s Escapes”. Some colleagues and friends had joined them for part of the ride (only 100 miles – but that sounds far enough to me!) so I went along to catch up with them all as they arrived in Ulverston.

Among the band of eight cyclists attempting the full distance was another friend from my Twitter timeline, Stephanie Angell. What would possess a seemingly sane woman, wife mother of two kids and school worker to take two weeks out and punish her body in a gruelling “1,000 miles in 10 days” challenge?

Alice – that’s what. Above everything else she has done, is doing, or plans to do, she is an inspiration to others.

If Alice can not only smile through adversity, but actually kick its butt, then there’s a lesson for us all.

Having received the hospitality of a charity set up to cater for people like her, she has turned the whole situation on its head and set about forming such a charity herself, to help others. Someone, for whom nobody would mind her just taking, without having to think about giving, is turning the tables to help other seriously ill youngsters and their families.

This young woman has become a role model to us all, not just with her charity, but her endless devotion to getting people signed up to the Bone Marrow register.

What’s the next challenge for Alice? Where to now? Who knows? I’m sure Alice hasn’t finished surprising us yet – just like that other Alice...

’Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’

’That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

’I don’t much care where —’ said Alice.

’Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat

For it doesn’t matter which way any of us choose, but if we can do one thing with Alice, let’s ensure that Alice’s Escapes becomes the huge success it deserves to be.

First published at 13:20, Monday, 30 April 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk