A Young Girl with Cancer Wished for 8,000 Cards for Her 8th Birthday. A Local Biker Helped Her Get 90,000

A little girl in the U.K. living with a rare cancer has been overwhelmed with support ahead of her eighth birthday — with more than 90,000 birthday cards arriving for her big day in March.

Amelia Kolpa, who was first diagnosed with neuroblastoma at age 2, initially set a goal of collecting 8,000 cards for her March 3 birthday. The target wasn’t random: hitting that number would have broken the U.K. record for the most greeting cards received in one day.

Her mom, Katarzyna Bartczak, shared Amelia’s wish during an appearance on BBC radio, describing her daughter as a child who keeps smiling through everything. “Amelia, she is the most amazing little girl. She’s always smiling … all the treatments and trials she’s gone through, she’s still smiling,” she said.

“For everyone to show the love to her,” Bartczak added, “It means the world.”

Amelia’s neuroblastoma — a cancer that develops in nerve tissue — was first discovered in her stomach when she was 2. Treatment initially worked, but the cancer later returned. Her aunt, Charmaine Grace, told BBC that Amelia is currently on a waiting list to be admitted into a clinical trial and is receiving palliative care in the meantime.

The story soon reached Matthew Lemm, a Hells Angels biker who decided to help turn Amelia’s goal into something much bigger.

“This one touched my heart; it really struck a chord,” Lemm said, per Daily Mail.

Lemm began collecting cards at his restaurant, the Lockside Steakhouse in Stourbridge, near where Amelia lives in Rowley Regis in England’s Black Country. The effort quickly grew beyond anything the family expected: by January 28, the count had reached 18,000 — and by early February, it had surged past 90,000.

Lemm and other bikers then helped deliver the huge wave of cards to Amelia in person.

“The whole community, nationally and internationally has pulled together to do this. And with the ride, considering that it was wet, windy and cold, for so many people to turn up and show their support — it’s truly unbelievable,” Lemm said, per the outlet.

Amelia wasn’t feeling well on the day the cards arrived, struggling with a fever — but her mother later shared on Facebook that Amelia’s “heart was overflowing with happiness — and that is something I will never forget.”

Grace, who also helped organize the drive, said the response has been emotional for the family, especially given how many of Amelia’s birthdays have been spent in the hospital.

“It’s beautiful to know that everyone out there is with us on this journey and there’s still humanity in the world,” Grace said. “She’s been going through this treatment since she was two and a half and most birthdays for her are spent in the hospital, so she wanted to do something big for her birthday.”

“To us, it’s just a card but it means the world to her,” she added.