One night, broken-hearted mother Claire Carstens posted a picture of her daughter, Shannon, in her prom dress. She wrote on Facebook, “She should have gone to prom tonight and worn this beautiful dress but because of bullies she chose not to go.”
She had her dream dress, tried it on, and her boyfriend had even arrived to take her, but it turns out that Shannon Purcifer, 16 years old, was terrified of going to the prom because bullying by her classmates had become unbearable. So she decided not to go.
“She had been looking forward to it for months and we bought the dress as far back as February but the bullying got so bad she knew she wouldn’t enjoy it if she went,” said Shannon’s mother. “She agonized over it for a while but we knew maybe two months beforehand that her heart wasn’t in it. She’d had enough.
“With all the things she’s been going through with her health and trying to study for GCSEs, the bullying has just taken its toll.”
It turns out that Shannon had spent weeks in the hospital suffering from bowel disease, colitis and arthritis. As a result, she was often bullied.
But Claire and Shannon’s sadness turned to astonishment when social media stepped up to lend a hand. People from their community helped Shannon get ready for another prom, did her makeup, hair, organized a location nearby to hold another dance, and invited a whole party’s worth of guests.
But the biggest surprise—120 bikers showed up to take Shannon to prom!
Shannon looked beautiful on her special night.
Said Shannon, “Better than I could ever have imagined. The best part was when the bikes arrived. I knew they were coming but I had no idea I was going to be riding there on a three-wheeled bike.”
Her mother was astonished to see how many people wanted to make her daughter happy. “It was surreal,” recalled Claire.
