The Disney World dreams of a 4-year-old Ohio girl who’s recovering from leukemia are looking better this week after plans for the Make-A-Wish Foundation to pay for the trip were scrapped.
The girl, McKenna May, completed intensive treatment in June for the cancer she was diagnosed with more than two years ago. It was that treatment that prevented her from going to Disney when the Make-A-Wish trip was first discussed in January 2011, McKenna’s grandmother, Lori Helppie, said Thursday.
But McKenna is now on once-a-month aftercare visits that would allow time for her to make the trip to the Magic Kingdom, her mother, Whitney Hughes, told CNN.
However, McKenna’s father, William May of Toledo, Ohio, who was never married to Hughes, says Make-A-Wish’s money would be better spent on terminally ill children who will never get to experience Disney otherwise since his daughter is free of cancer.
He’s refusing to sign paperwork that would allow the foundation to pay for McKenna’s trip.
“There’s children out there that deserve a trip like this that will never get to experience it,” May, 28, told CNN Thursday. “My daughter can go when she’s older and can remember it. I’ll pay for it.”
Rather than pay upwards of $3,500 for McKenna and her family to go to Florida, May suggested the group just get the girl a $200 swing set for her backyard.
Paul Allvin, vice president for brand advancement with Make-A-Wish Foundation of America in Phoenix, told CNN a child need not be terminally ill to qualify for wish fulfillment. That was the case when the organization started, but the policy changed more than 20 years ago, he said.
These days, all a child needs to qualify is a doctor's verification that the child has or had a condition that would be life-threatening if left untreated, Allvin said. As many as 80% of "Wish Kids" live into adulthood, he said.
"What we would never do is penalize a child for getting better," Allvin said.
Susan McConnell, president and CEO of Make-A-Wish for Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, told the Sentinel-Tribune of Bowling Green, Ohio, that McKenna is certainly entitled to the organization’s help.
Hughes agrees with McConnell, saying her daughter endured a lot during her treatment and deserves the Florida trip.
"She's really excited," Hughes told the Sentinel-Tribune, which first published accounts of McKenna’s story this week. "It's all she's talked about for the last three months."
After May refused to sign off on the trip last month, Hughes withdrew her request with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and tried to raise money privately, putting out collection jars around the area where they live and setting up an online donation site.
Hughes said Thursday it will take $3,500 for her, McKenna, McKenna’s younger sister and her grandmother and grandfather to spend a couple of days at Disney and a couple of days at Daytona Beach “to build sandcastles.”
McKenna’s mother and grandmother have also set up a site to accept donations online, http://www.gofundme.com/Make-McKennas-wish-happe. That site showed a flurry of donations Thursday as McKenna’s story spread across national media and donations passed the $9,700 mark early Thursday evening.
“I will get her there someday, but I’m not sure when I’ll get her there,” Hughes said Thursday morning. With the online response, it appears McKenna’s dream may come true sooner rather than later.
Nevertheless, "We are ready to grant this wish if the parents can work it out," Allvin said.
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Here is the question I want to ask ...
Was this guy who stopped the trip (her dad) going to go on the trip or was it just going to be the mother?
My guess is that it was just the mother so the father decided to be a jerk-face and ruin it for everyone since he couldn't go. I don't know that for sure but that's what I'd guess.
The man makes a valid point. I always thought the make a wish money was used for terminally ill children. If this is not the case then I was mislead and will donate elsewhere.
I have mixed feelings on this. In the fall of 2010 we were planning a family trip to Disneyland (we did the "give a day, get a day" and made quilts for those in need). We were suppose to go around the 20th of October. Then on the 5th of October my then 10 year old daughter was in a rockslide and crushed by a 9000lb (yes that's 4.5 tons) rock. We didn't know if she was going to live or die (two of the doctors didn't expect her to survive the night), or what lingering problems she would have (the main injury was that her skull was crushed in plus she had severe injuries to her liver, level 3 lacerations and a damaged bile duct that it took them over a week to realize was leaking bile into her abdomen, in addition to other more minor injuries). We were provided a miracle and she not only lived but made a full recovery, she was in the hospital for a month and a day. After her accident we talked with some of the people at Disney about extending the date of our trip, but they couldn't extend it far/long enough for her to be able to go, so we never went. I don't see how getting crushed by a 9000lb rock is any less than fighting cancer plus she had already done the work to earn the trip to Disneyland yet she never got to go. So while I can understand wanting your child, who has gone though a difficult time, to get to go to Disneyland, I also know first hand how other children have gone through things similar and they don't get to go.
I'm glad to hear that your daughter made a full recovery. Thank you for sharing your story.
I have to side with the dad on this one. While her cancer is only in remission and will most likely come back. There are children out there that have no chance of a cure. Dont they deserve a trip? It is not like M.A.W. has unlimited funds. It sounds to me like the family has already earned more than enough for their trip. If the family can now pay for it, it is even more important that it goes to someone else.
Make a Wish determined, based on the recommendations of the girl's doctors, that she met the qualifications for the trip. Should Make a Wish now put it out to the general public to second guess and approve how they spend their funds? If Make a Wish determined she qualified, then her father should not be mean and petty and should let her go. You make it sound as if the family deceived Make a Wish somehow to get a trip they didn't deserve and the father is a white knight sticking up for other sick kids.....
The family couldn't pay for it until the story went public. Make A Wish granted a child diagnosed with cancer a trip, and now she's well enough to enjoy it. Just because it didn't KILL her doesn't mean she shouldn't get to go. Children who have to go through something as awful as having to see an oncologist and fight for their life deserve something, and hers was granted, and denied, by someone who should love her. This is about more than standing on moral principle. It's unfortunate that people think this way, and that the family had to appeal to the public for help. I'm just glad there were enough kind people out there to grant a wish that her father took away.
Most likely come back? For most pediatric leukemia's, 9 out of 10 kids make it nowadays....please do research before posting
Yeah, I sure made zillions off my cancer.
Anyone who cannot see the father's point has bought the "for the kids!" derp hook, line, and sinker. He's making a very valid point by suggesting that the foundation's money could be better spent fulfilling the wishes of truly sick and dying children - which happens to be its charter. It may come off as a little cold to put the needs of other children above those of your own, but, all things considered, it is actually a very selfless thing he's doing.
Making negative assumptions about his parenting skills and character based on his actions described herein speaks more to your own bias than to anything else.
And yet he says he will pay for her to go later but MaW should pay for a $200 swing set she can use now. If he has the money for a D trip, why can't he pony up for the swing set now? This is between MaW and the custodial parent. I knew a family that received a MaW trip for their daughter who lost a leg to bone cancer, they put the trip off until her brother got out of prison so he could go too. I lost a little faith in the concept of MaW then. The girl deserved the trip but not the loser brother. In this case it should be MaW decision, leukemia is very iffy on cures.
Two years of treatment for leukemia doesn't qualify as "truly sick"? Would it have been OK for her to go on the trip while she was in treatment and "truly sick"? Of course, she would have been too weak and probably immuno-compromised at the time, but hey, at least then she would meet your criteria for "truly sick".
When I first started reading the article, I agreed with you. However, after I read that MAW had already promised the kid the trip before knowing she was going to get better I retracted. I also thought that donations received by the family should be given back to MAW. Everyone saves face and is happy!
Where does it say that the father is absent from her life? Just because people never got married doesnt automatically mean an absent father.
I read another article this morning,
The mother and father only dated and broke up when the mother was 1 month pregnant. The father only received visitation rights this January.
So no the father has not been in the life of this child and really should not have any say in this situation.
This child will never live a normal life even with a "cure". she will battle this dsease for the rest of her life (which could be short or long). After everything she has been through she deserves to get to go to Disney
Not only does she deserve the trip, she deserves a new Dad.
It seems the father is in some kind of battle with the mother and will deny her anything that she wants.
I worked in the Central Florida theme parks when I was a teen and the Make-A-Wish kids were pampered by the parks, and rightfully so. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney has caught wind of this story and will pay the way for this little girl to have a wonderful trip. What a brave little girl, many prayers for her continued recovery and remission.
I used to run the carousel at "Give Kids the World" (the Make a Wish Resort in the Orlando area, that houses the kids and families when they are visiting Disney, Sea World & Universal.) It's a wonderful place.
The trips were not just for terminal kids, but also for kids who were just very sick or very disabled, as well as respite for their families and caregivers. It's bonding away from the medical care. Two years of the stress of treatment deserves a little happiness.
Boo on that Daddy!
No on the trip. If he goes and the cancer comes back later, then the kid is eligible again. Potentially, that's double-dipping. And that ain't right. >:^)
Really? As they withdrew the app, your post makes no sense, and you sound less than human.
Wishes are difficult things to figure out. A child has to meet a certain criteria to be considered, but they also have to be well enough to take the trip. My son was recently declared in remission for a stage IV neuroblastoma when he went on his Wish trip, but it was some years later that he was declared cured. Not to be unsympathetic but wording is important here, if a child is declared cured then at the very least they should be bumped for a more pressing case. I am sure I will be in the minority here, but I have to agree with the father who said basically the exact same thing.
If the app was put in before she was "cured" (which she's NOT), the journey to wellness was a rough one, and she deserves the trip.
That's a slippery slope. How do you explain to a child "well, yeah, you were promised a trip to Disney, but since you got well, you don't get to go. But hey, if you get close to death again, then you might qualify"....
Then don't donate to charity. Simple.
Nice "father".
Disney should pick up the tab.
Ok...never turn down anything free.
That's just plain stupid.