10-year-old's record is in cards
Leukemia patient means business with collection
By ANNETTE WELLS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Photo courtesy of the Las Vegas Review-Journal
There's an exotic pet keeper and a man who charges $50 to pick up dead cattle.
Comb through Brandon Rayner's three-ring binders, boxes and bags of business cards, and your fingers will also skid across those from law enforcement officers, doctors, attorneys, public relations firms and real estate agents.
"I have every Realtor you can think of,'' said the 10-year-old, who is collecting business cards in an effort to someday be included in Guinness World Records.
Brandon figures he must log more than 150,000, but there's no real number on record for the feat.
So far, he's collected and sorted through just over 14,000, with hundreds more piling in daily at Sunrise Children's Hospital, where Brandon is undergoing care for leukemia.
Since arriving at the hospital a month ago, Brandon has collected about 10,000 cards.
Brandon's mission began about two years ago, just as his fascination with collecting miniature wrenches and keys started to fade.
At the time, Brandon says, he was attracted to the different colors and designs of business cards.
Today, though, his fancy is more than just about getting his name in the great book of records. Brandon's card collecting is providing him with a coping mechanism, said Dr. Jonathan Bernstein, a Las Vegas pediatric hematology oncologist.
Brandon's future consists of a bone marrow transplant and several more rounds of chemotherapy.
Although hospital staff considers him quite the bubbly and bright kid, having an acute illness can bring some emotional distress to a child, Bernstein said.
"Something like this helps them greatly,'' he said. "Every day, he receives cards and they brighten his day. It's been very nice to see him cope with his illness. Except for about 15 minutes, his spirits have always been high.''
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