Transformational Impact for Children with Critical Illness

Life-Changing Support for Children with Critical Illness

About

“Make-A-Wish International is tremendously grateful for the support of Medialthea who generously donated €25,000 in June 2024 to help grant life changing wishes to children with critical illness around the world.

We could not grand wishes without the generosity of donors such as Medialthea.”

Focus areas of the project

Transformational Impact for Children with Critical Illness

When children are living with critical illness, so much of normal childhood is taken away from them — it is exhausting, both emotionally and physically. Critical illness steals childhood from a child. A wish restores it.

A wish is something that gives children the opportunity to look outside their illness — it helps them reclaim their childhood.

Hope changes everything. Every 25 seconds, a family hears the devastating news thattheir child is diagnosed with a critical illness. This moment turns their lives upside downand can impair a child’s recovery, leaving them feeling hopeless. Make-A-Wish shines a light of hope in these dark times.

Wishes are designed to reduce stress and promote positive emotions and personal growht, enabling children to thrive despite the challenges posed by their illnesses. 92% of wish children say that the wish experience improved their well being.

About Make-A-Wish International

Stories of courage

Elena is a very shy girl, she has lived with difficulties and uncertainties since birth. She struggles to express her emotions but her dreams and passions are very clear: she loves cooking, discovering new recipes and hopes that one day cooking can become her job.

Her favorite chef is Alessandro Borghese. When her wish day arrived Elena was so excited that she can barely hold back her tears. Together they watch the part of his program in which he is cooking risotto, Elena’s favorite recipe. He tells her his secrets,invites her to cook with him and then sit at the table to enjoy the delicious dishes they have prepared together.

For eight-year-old Zachariah, a series of mobility limiting conditions had left him unable to do the thing that he loves the most: exploring the great outdoors. But his wish to have an off-roading buggy has expanded his world as he can now venture out onto a multitude of different terrains.

The morning of his wish, Younes practiced the PSG anthem with his family in preparation for the match!

15 minutes before the end of the match, members of the staff came to see Younes and took him to the players’ bus. He then went to the locker room to meet the players as they came out.

This very emotional moment that Younes had been looking forward too, especially during his cancer treatment.