An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane.

Most of us learned about the legend in the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki. She was 2-years-old and only a mile from Ground Zero when the atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. After being diagnosed with leukemia from the radiation at 12, Sadako spent her time in a nursing home folding origami paper cranes in hope of making a thousand of them so she could wish for a cure.

Sam and Jo Brady, a pair of sisters from Salt Lake City, had a wish to get tickets to see Taylor Swift so they decided to upgrade the 1000 cranes to 1989 cranes, in honor of Taylor’s tour at album, “1989.” They started folding the origami cranes in January and folded for an hour almost every day, making about 30 cranes daily; binge watching entire movie series while they worked.

But when the 11 and 8-year-old heard that Taylor’s mom, Andrea Swift, was battling cancer their priorities changed.

“I was trying to find an address to get them shipped to the right place and they came to me and said, ‘You know, mom, we think it would be better for us to send these to Taylor Swift’s mom to help her beat cancer,’” the girl’s mom, Laurie Brady, told ABC News.

“It never ceases to amaze me how innocent and hopeful children can be,” Brady said.

The 1,989 paper cranes took the sisters about 30 minutes per day for four months to fold.

“I really have amazing daughters,” Brady said. “They are awesome. For their birthdays, they choose not to have gifts. Instead, every year they pick a charity and donate to a charity … they really, truly care about their fellow human beings.”

paper cranes