Your LAST chance to make a sick child’s wish come true
Our appeal closes today... here’s how you can still help
WHEN Ben Halliday looks back on the time when, as a little boy, he was being treated for cancer, it is neither the months that he spent in hospital, nor the pain and discomfort of endless rounds of chemotherapy, that first spring to mind.
What he remembers most vividly is the time he got to meet some real cowboys.
Ben, now 18, had his greatest childhood dream realized by Make-A-Wish UK, the amazing charity supported by the Daily Mail’s Christmas Quids for Kids campaign that arranges magical experiences for children facing life-threatening conditions.
Generous readers have helped to smash the £200,000 barrier by donating old £1 coins to Nationwide.
You can no longer hand in your coins at Nationwide but you can continue to send a donation directly to our fund – see the coupon below.
The money will be used to help terribly ill children such as Ben, who battle devastating illnesses with extraordinary courage. ‘My wish came true 12 years ago,’ says Ben, now a college student. ‘I was in hospital and someone from Make-A-Wish came to see me and asked, ‘‘if you could have anything what would you wish for the most?’’. At first I said I’d like a new pair of rugby socks. But as we talked it began to sink in that I was being offered something much bigger than that – I was being given the chance to reveal my wildest dream, and then someone would somehow find a way to make it happen for me.’
Back then Ben, from North Shields near Newcastle upon Tyne, was mad about cowboys. ‘I said that to meet some real cowboys was my greatest wish.’
Ben had been diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma – a form of soft tissue cancer – following tests on a lump that was found when he was three. There are two types of this cancer and poor Ben had both. But knowing his One True Wish was going to come true kept him going through chemotherapy.
Ben was six when he flew out to Albuquerque in New Mexico with his charity worker mum Helen, now 45, and dad Gary, a 49-yearold dairy director. His chemotherapy had finished and his hair was beginning to grow back. ‘I got to stay on a ranch, got kitted out as a cowboy myself and I spent my days hanging out with cowboys, riding horses, and went to a rodeo,’ he said. ‘It was the most amazing, overwhelming and completely unforgettable week of my life.’
Just over a year ago, Ben finally got the all- clear and was discharged from hospital for good. Today, he is studying photography, film and media studies.
Each year Make-A-Wish hopes to grant 1,000 wishes to desperately ill children like Ben – but even then, as many requests will still be waiting to be fulfilled.
A heartbreaking 20,000 young people face gruelling treatment and long periods in hospital over the Christmas period this year and you can still help them by donating to Quids for Kids.
Make-A-Wish has also helped Loyd Wildridge, who has been a Liverpool FC fan all his short, brave and very difficult life.
‘He’s Liverpool crazy,’ his mother Helen said. ‘Most of all, he loves their manager, Jürgen Klopp. So when Make-A-Wish arranged for him to travel to Anfield in September, interview Jürgen and meet members of the team including Jordan Henderson, Sadio Mané, Dominic Solanke and Daniel Sturridge, it felt like all his dreams had come true.’ At age six, Loyd suffered multiple mystery seizures and was rushed by ambulance to the intensive care ward at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. He was on life support but clung on, and after five days in a medically induced coma gradually came round.
However, life for him, his elder brother and mum had changed forever. Loyd was badly brain damaged. He couldn’t sit up, he couldn’t talk, had no muscle control and had to be tube fed.
He was discharged after six months but still couldn’t walk or sit up unaided and was fed by a tummy tube. But then to the doctors’ amazement, Loyd started to learn everything all over again – eating, drinking, talking – like a baby and, ever since, has gone from strength to strength.
Three months after meeting the Liverpool manager Loyd, 17, is still over the moon and can’t stop talking about his hero, or proudly showing off his football and shirt, signed by Jürgen and all the team.
The charity also helped Ellie Joseph whose younger daughter Casey, eight, lives with SWAN epilepsy – which stands for ‘syndrome without a name’ – meaning she is affected by a genetic condition so rare that no amount of tests or medical procedures have identified its cause.
As a baby, she experienced hundreds of epileptic seizures that caused profound brain damage, and her mobility is severely restricted. A spa pool, delivered by the charity in July, means Casey can move around much more easily. ‘In the warm water my daughters are just two sisters, like any others, playing together and having fun. It’s wonderful,’ said Ellie, 35, from Truro.