Make a Wish Foundation

Fulfilling a Child’s Wish Imagine the joy of finally becoming a parent. All the time, effort and dreams created with each new life. Imagine holding that perfect bundle of joy in your hands and looking into those eyes; seeing all the possibilities and future dreams in that one tiny gift God has given you. Imagine now those same eyes, looking at you from a hospital bed and hearing the doctors tell you that your child, your precious gift, is terminal. At that one moment, how many dreams would come crashing to the ground for both the parents and the child? Those dreams, those precious few moments of remaining life for a terminally ill child, is why the Make-A-Wish foundation was established. The Make-A-Wish foundation was created to offer life-affirming, hope-giving dreams to terminally ill children who should experience their life long dreams before death. Children are such a precious gift and yet the statistics for mortality facing these children are like a slap in the face. According to the National Cancer Institute, last year in the United States approximately 10,400 children, under the age of 15 years old were diagnosed with cancer. Of those children diagnosed with cancer, 1,545 will die yearly from cancer, making it the second most common cause of death in children. That’s not all, according to the American Diabetes Association in 2010 over 20,000 children, under the age of 20, will be diagnosed with diabetes and it’s the 7th leading cause of death for children in America. Finally, according to the American Heart Association, over 2,000 children under the age of 15 years old will die from heart disease. Heart disease is listed as the 3rd most common from of death in children. Hearing all these statistics it makes the point that a child’s life, every moment of life is precious and should be valued every second. Established in 1980, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America began granting dreams for terminally ill children, between the ages