Alicia Parlette

In early April 2010, Parlette's health took a turn for the worse. Her friends set up a site to gather donations and give updates on her health.

On April 13, 2010, a post on the page described Parlette's current condition:

On April 22, 2010, Parlette died at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, at the age of 28. During her final days, her friends read her favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird, aloud to her; she died twenty minutes after the last chapter was finished.

A public memorial was held for Parlette at Lafayette Park in San Francisco on the evening of May 10, 2010. During the reading of an excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird, there was a break in the rainy weather, with the skies opening and the sighting of a rainbow to the east over downtown San Francisco.

On November 13, 2008, Parlette attended a book reading by Kelly Corrigan and was reported by another cancer survivor as doing well, "she looks healthy and vibrant".

On March 9, 2007, the San Francisco Chronicle published the final installment of "Alicia's Story" under the title "Cancer. Despair. And now, a blog." In this installment, Parlette explained that she no longer would remain a "full-fledged employee of Hearst Newspapers" and instead would be continuing to share her story as a public blog on the Chronicle's website. On August 17, 2007, Parlette posted her last entry on the website.

After learning of being afflicted with this rare form of cancer, Parlette began a diary of her treatment titled "Alicia's Story", the first installment of which was carried by the San Francisco Chronicle on June 5, 2005. The series won Parlette the Laxalt Distinguished Writer Award in 2005. The first seven installments of the series were published as a book of the same name in 2005.

Alicia Rose Parlette (January 11, 1982 – April 22, 2010) was a journalist and copy editor who was diagnosed with alveolar soft part sarcoma in 2005 while employed by the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.