The National Children of Wales Awards are delighted to be supporting Dreams & Wishes, a UK based charity founded in 2011. It is dedicated to helping seriously ill children by making their dreams and wishes come true. Those who work at the charity provide vital support throughout the child’s illness, as well as helping to build happy memories by granting lifelong wishes.
Having a serious illness at any age is awful; however, for a child it is unimaginable. There is a sense of a ‘lost’ childhood, as most of their time is spent in hospital undergoing painful treatments.
Dreams & Wishes want to enable these brave children to hold on to their childhoods for as long as possible, and they do this in remarkable, heart-warming ways.
No matter how big or how small these dreams or wishes are, the charity is dedicated to make them come true. Children have been able to meet their favourite TV stars, fly in a helicopter, visit Legoland, or just have their own playhouse. Whatever the request, the team at Dreams & Wishes dedicate themselves to make it happen.
Joseph Calzaghe, former Welsh professional boxer who competed from 1993 – 2008, is an ambassador for Dreams & Wishes. He has a long history of working with children’s charities and came to Dreams & Wishes as he found the children they work with hugely inspirational, and wanted to help the charity continue to help children.
One of the Dreams & Wishes Ambassadors is 16-year-old Helen. In 2012, Helen found a lump on her chest, and was sent to the Health Hospital for further tests. She was diagnosed with Anaplastic Large T-Cell Lymphoma, also known as Non-Hodgkinsons Lymphoma.
Shortly after this devastating news, Helen was admitted to the Teenage Cancer Trust unit, where she underwent intense treatment for a few months.
Helen expressed her joy and happiness when Dreams & Wishes came and offered to help her and her family.
She said: “They really helped me and my family throughout my illness. The charity has done a lot for me while I’ve been ill and they’ve helped me to make some amazing memories.”
Thanks to those at Dreams & Wishes, Helen was able to meet One Direction, Olly Murs, James Arthur, and Rylan Clarke. These celebrities were so important to Helen when she was going through her treatment, and being able to meet them made her dreams come true.
Since it is a charity, Dreams & Wishes mostly relies on public donations. Without the generosity of you at home, many seriously unwell children wouldn’t be able to have their wishes granted.
The public can donate in a number of ways, including over the phone, by text message, by post, or via the internet. Companies are also encouraged to donate a wish, and can do so either over the phone or over email.
With the proceeds from the Awards, we hope that Dreams & Wishes will continue helping children to forget about their illnesses for a while, and regain part of their childhood.
The National Children of Wales awards are delighted to be supporting Dreams & Wishes, a charity that works with families of sick children across the UK, providing vital support throughout the child’s illness as well as helping to build happy memories by granting lifelong wishes.
Established in 2011, the charity aims to grant each child their dream or wish as best they can, taking their mind off their illness and letting them be a child for a moment.
In 2015, the charity was able to grant 164 wishes. This number rose to an incredible 188 wishes in 2016.
The very first Young Ambassador of the charity was 11-year-old Macsen Giess from Porthcawl, who was a footsteps Ambassador.
In May 2011, he was diagnosed with A.L.L PH+ (Leukaemia) and was admitted to Sky Ward in the Children’s Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.
Macsen went through a lot of awful chemotherapy treatment, and had to be isolated in Bristol Hospital after a bone marrow transplant for a couple of weeks. There was a period when Macsen was able to recover at home, until he fell ill again and had to be re-admitted to hospital.
Here, he met Dreams & Wishes co-founder Tony Curtis MBE. When he was given the all-clear to leave hospital, he noticed that a Ferrari was parked outside. To his surprise, the Ferrari was waiting for him to take him home, courtesy of Tony Curtis!
However, this wasn’t the main event. Macsen said: “I thought it was the best surprise I’d ever had until Dreams & Wishes arranged a helicopter ride for me and my family. I was even allowed to fly it myself! I loved it.”
Over that summer, Dreams & Wishes arranged lots of surprises for him, with Macsen describing it as the best summer he’d ever had – making up for the year he had to spend in hospital.
Sadly, Macsen lost his fight with Leukaemia, and he is missed terribly. His family were so grateful for Dreams & Wishes because they allowed him to step away from his illness and enjoy being a child.
Charities such as this are exactly what the National Children of Wales Awards hope to recognise. Proceeds from the Awards will go towards granting lots of children with their dreams and wishes, lighting up their faces with smiles.
One of the four charities the National Children of Wales Awards is supporting is the Dreams & Wishes charity.
Dreams & Wishes is dedicated to helping seriously ill children by making their dreams and wishes come true. Established in 2011, the charity has been working with families across the UK to provide vital support throughout the child’s illness, as well as helping to build happy memories by granting lifelong wishes.
Fighting life-threatening and long-term illnesses is heart-breaking for both a child and their support network. The National Children of Wales Awards aims to raise money for Dreams & Wishes to help support the children and their families to make wonderful and long-lasting memories, even at the most difficult times of their lives.
The charity understands that every child is unique with their own dreams and wishes, so their aim is to make sure that every child they work with, is able to fulfil their dreams – no matter what they are. Whether some children want to meet their favourite TV stars, fly in a helicopter, visit Legoland or to have their own playhouse – Dreams & Wishes help to make this happen.
Wendy Hobbs, Business Ambassador for Dreams & Wishes charity, said:
“Dreams & Wishes, an award-winning charity, are absolutely delighted to be part of the prestigious National Children of Wales Awards that honours inspirational children. The volunteer-based charity began in 2011 and is unique in that every penny raised with no deductions grants the dreams and wishes of seriously ill children and their families.
“These amazing awards will highlight the great work of our wonderful team of volunteers, shine a bright light on the courage and bravery of the children that we support, and help us to put plenty more beautiful smiles on faces.”