Birthday Wish Comes True for Evansville Girl with Rare Bone Disorder

Paige Mason only wanted one thing for her third birthday — cards. A lot of cards. And people from around the world were more than happy to grant her wish.

Paige, the daughter of our former co-worker, Stacy Mason, and her husband Chris, was born with the rare bone disorder known as Osteogenesis Imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease. The condition is caused by a genetic mutation that affects the bone's ability to produce collagen, meaning Paige's bones can be, and have, broken easily.

To date (remember, she's only three-years-old), Paige has suffered a total of 10 bone fractures, six of which have happened in her left arm. The most recent fracture took place back in December when she fell simply walking across the room causing a break in her left femur (a.k.a. thigh bone) that required a nighttime ambulance ride to Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, and resulted in a cast that not only covered her leg, but also half of her torso.

It's a condition Stacy is all to familiar with having been diagnosed herself at birth.

If you haven't put two-and-two together yet, there is a silver lining to this story. Stacy has used Paige's condition to raise awareness for Osteogenesis Imperfecta, chronicling her story through a Facebook page she created, including Paige's love of getting mail, and her desire to receive nothing but birthday cards this year. Stacy shared Paige's wish on Facebook, and as somethings tend to do, the post went viral, being shared over and over again across the country and around the world.

As Paige's birthday drew closer a few weeks back, the cards started coming in from friends, family, and eventually total strangers. And they kept coming, and coming, and coming. When Stacy and I exchanged a few Facebook messages earlier this week, she said cards are still showing up, and estimated they've received "about 6,000 so far." She predicts "around 8-9 thousand [sic]" from "23 different countries" when all is said and done!

She said the family is beyond thankful for the outpouring of support Paige has received from people she's never met, and probably never will, adding they would "love to send each person a thank you, but that would kind of be impossible."

She went on to say they "never expected her story to affect so many people from all across the world...We're very happy this has happened and we've been able to raise so much awareness for Osteogenesis Imperfecta."

Paige's story has been featured on local TV, as well as The Today Show and The Huffington Post. Stacy and Chris plan on closing the P.O. Box they set up to receive the cards soon, but as you can see, the cards have put a big smile on her adorable face.