Alicia Parlette | Cancer chronicler, 28

Alicia Parlette, 28, who turned her incurable-cancer diagnosis at age 23 into a San Francisco Chronicle series about her experience, died Thursday at a San Francisco hospital.

Ms. Parlette's 17-part series - "Alicia's Story" (http:// www.sfgate.com/alicia/ - drew tens of thousands of followers, who read about her trips to the doctor's office, the therapist's couch, her relationships with family and friends, and her faith in God.

Ms. Parlette, who had been a summer copy-editing intern at The Inquirer, had just begun her career as a copy editor for the Chronicle when she found out in 2005 that she had a rare form of cancer in her hip and breast called alveolar soft part sarcoma.

Despite treatments of interferon and chemotherapy, the cancer spread to her lungs.

On April 2, Ms. Parlette went to the emergency room with breathing problems and debilitating pain in her hip. Tumors in her lungs had grown to the point that she could no longer breathe on her own, and the tumor in her hip had caused it to fracture.

By mid-April, Ms. Parlette and her medical team decided to end treatment. Days later, she and boyfriend Lucas Beeler had a private commitment ceremony. He gave her the wedding ring worn by his mother and grandmother.

As her stamina declined, a steady flow of friends came to say goodbye, and thousands more sent messages via Facebook and a Web site set up for her.

Ms. Parlette recorded her thoughts on a digital recorder, and friends are planning to transcribe them. In her last days, she listened to friends read aloud from her favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird. She died 20 minutes after her high school English teacher finished the last chapter.

- San Francisco Chronicle