The fairy godmother who makes kids’ wishes come true
To ill children, she is a real-life fairy godmother.
Joanne Micklewright leads a dedicated team making 2,000 wishes a year come true for youngsters fighting life-threatening illnesses.
As Director of Wishgranting for the Make-A-Wish Foundation UK, she has helped children swim with dolphins, drive trains and even become ninja princesses for the day.
But turning dreams into reality is far more complicated than waving a magic wand, with each dream usually taking months of work to arrange. It is also very expensive, costing between £3,000 and £4,000 per dream, – which is why she is so excited about the Mail’s Quids for Kids campaign, in which readers are encouraged to donate their old pound coins to the charity.
She said: ‘My job sounds the best job in the world and in many ways it is, but it has its moments of complete joy and complete despair.
‘So much of it is about the details. We have to spend a lot of time researching the needs and requirements of each child.
‘Some have complex needs and to fulfil a wish we have to organ- ise oxygen, or a hospital bed, or special mattresses, hoists or equipment.
‘Arranging something so complex with so much logistics to think about is often overwhelming for a family.
‘We do all the donkey work as we don’t want the family stressing about it. It’s hard work but extremely rewarding.’
The Mail is asking readers to support the charity’s work by donating old pound coins to make dreams come true for children this Christmas.
Round pounds ceased to be legal tender last week and can be exchanged at banks and post offices. But as part of our Quids for Kids appeal, old coins can be taken to Nationwide Building Society branches until December 20, to be donated to MakeA-Wish UK.
The foundation receives around 2,300 referrals for wishes a year, from doctors treating a child, the child’s family – and sometimes the child themselves.
Joanne runs a team of 18 ‘wish granters’, each organising around 80 wishes at one time. In total, they have around 1,500 dreams in the pipeline.
But with no government funding, they are entirely reliant on donations. ‘We try to offset costs as much as possible but of course everything costs money. We couldn’t do anything without donations.’ Money worries cause some of the lowest points in her job. ‘ We have to have some tough budget conversations and we can’t grant all the wishes that we want because of financial constraints,’ she said. Joanne, who joined MakeA-Wish UK 15 years ago after a career break, said: ‘I didn’t want to return to the civil service or the corporate world. I wanted to do something that would make a difference.
‘I really feel I am doing that, but only thanks to having such a hard-working team, our army of volunteers and people’s generosity in donating which enables us to deliver a child’s one true wish.
‘The Mail’s Quids for Kids campaign is really helping that, and making magical dreams come true for children who need them the most.’