Recently, a 17 year old girl died in my hometown; she had suffered from brain cancer.

This is nothing but tragic and unfair and horrible. A charity fund was set up to raise money and awareness- fair enough.

I feel a bit... funny about all the publicity it has got, though. I mean, it's the first time our town has united over anything. There've been memorial concerts, sponsored events, all sorts. It just seems a bit tacky and cheap. Like we're celebrating someone we never really cared about because we feel guilty.

Also, this appeared on facebook earlier on: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150947388956038&set=at.10150855735941038.519457.632946037.1611474970&type=1&theater

if you can't see that, a lad did a sponsored skateboarding challenge to raise money. He succeeded, and the link was to an afterparty he is putting on to celebrate his success. On the photo, it describes the girl who died as 'a local hero'.

... this is what gets me. She really, really wasn't. I knew her, and she was a perfectly average teenage girl. Nice to talk to and that, but nobody special. there are people I can think of who are 'local heroes' (horrid term). There's a special needs facility in my town that does loads of work with families of severely autistic children, for instance. Where are the charitable events for that? the massive publicity? the hype?

I know this is a) poorly articulated and b) weird but it's been on my mind for ages. I don't know what to think about it.

No bitching, please. This is a sensitive one.