Six-year-old’s one wish to fly to the stars
‘‘I want to takemy family on a rocket into space.’’
This was the wish of 6-year-old Jonty morgan, who was diagnosed with metastatic bone cancer at 10 weeks old.
He has been in remission for three years, but has had a multitude of neurosurgeries to repair the damage the tumour at the base of his skull has caused.
With the help of make Awish Jonty and his family flew from Palmerston North to Christchurch on March 2, where he was greeted at GCH Aviation by storm troopers, before being kitted out in a NASA astronaut suit.
A private jet was dressed up as a rocket, and Jonty was able to sit with the pilot and review the flightpath. He excitedly watched Amanda Gillies read the weather for space, before he was taken into the skies to see the stars.
The family also toured the facility.
Jonty’ s mum kerri morgan said the experience was something Jonty would remember for the rest of his life.
‘‘It’s something that you can’t buy, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.’’
They flew to 27,000 feet around the Banks Peninsula, and across the Pacific Ocean for about an hour. ‘‘He kept saying, ‘Are we in space yet?’’’ Jonty owned a star, and the pilot flew him up to look at it from the sky.
Kerri contacted Make Awish in March last year to see if Jonty could have something to look forward to.
They sat together and filled out the questionnaire, where he expressed his ultimate wish was to fly to the stars in a rocket.
She thought that might be difficult to deliver, but said he was dead-set on his idea.
‘‘I never thought they would be able to pull it off.
‘‘Hewas blown away. It was everything he had dreamed it was going to be.’’
Make Awish chief executive Pam Elgar said as Jonty already had a star and an interest in space, the wish fell into place with ease.
‘‘Where we’ve got a wish like this, it becomes very easy to design because he’s told us everything he loves.’’