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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Maybe unpopular, but I have to say that I see the dad's point. Probably the world's biggest Disney expert–the guy who writes the yourfirstvisit site–says "your youngest child should be 8 or 9 or older, and your shortest child should be at least 48 inches tall" when you make your first trip. I don't see the dad as being a jerk, I just read that he's saying "give the money to a kid who needs it more; my kid has time and (my) money to go to Disney." Is this heartless, or reasonable and hopeful? Granted, this is complicated by the idea that the child is psyched up to go now. I for one (supposedly) went, once, when I was four. I have absolutely no memory of it. I can only imagine I was overstimulated, almost immediately tired, and probably miserable to be around. Not much has changed
Finally, it's a non-issue. They raised the money privately. Good for mom.
But please, let's take it a bit easy on dad and try to see things from his perspective at least a little.
In another story about this, I read that he was upset at McKenna's mother and grandmother for not granting him the custody he wanted while she was undergoing treatment and that was part of his not allowing her to go. He was quoted as saying he was "ticked off." Not saying I know either way what his real motive was, but there is information either CNN didn't get or was given incorrectly to another news organization.
If this man really cared so much for other terminally ill children he could donate the funds to Make-a-wish. The girl is stable now. Her remission could end or she could develop another illness because of her weakened state.
I see your point, IF the father had been involved with his child for her entire life, but from all the articles I have read, he has not been there for his daughter, was not involved in helping her through the cancer treatment- and sounds like he is just being mean to his daughter's mother. If he has $3500 to send her to Disney, where was he when she needed things from him while going through her ordeal with cancer? It looks like this mother has done everything she can to be there for her daughter. And as for being "cured", she is not cured. It takes 5 years of remission to be free of cancer.
The trip was scheduled during treatment & delayed on the advice of the doctors, doby. The little girl just finished her treatment. It was already planned before the butt wipe decided to take his anger on the mother out on that poor little girl. If I were the mother I would ask the court to remove his parental rights for doing something that could stress the child out when she has already had problems with her immune system. Did you ever think this child might not live to make it to 5? Of course you commune with the guy, you think Disney is only the rides & every child will get to 8.
This guy stated in another article that he was mad at being left out. He just poured out the BS so you could lap it up & you did.
This is not a 'father.' He's just some guy who hasn't been in her life and has decided to punish the mother, and in turn is punishing the child. It's unreal that someone could be that hateful and uncaring.
The child won't really remember the trip...seems to me the mom is trying to get a paid vacation. Selfish woman teaching her children to be selfish.
@Patty, sorry you're wrong. I went to Disneyland for the first time when I was 4 and I remember the trip very well.
Right. Because men are NEVER forced out of their children's lives by a bitter ex-wife with an ax to grind. Women NEVER use their children as weapons in divorce. It was ENTIRELY the father's fault.
I sincerely hope you are not a mother Patty. You need to be spayed. This family has been through he11. A decent person would be angry that a lowlife stressed out a sick child & took away a trip arranged to benefit the child. This spiteful sack of excrement will have no say in any trip they take now. I am sure that a judge would be very interested in his lack of concern for the child's well being. He might find his rights curtailed if he continues this sick behavior. You need to stop judging other women by your own standards dear. It reveals more than you are aware.
Wow, talk about a mean, spiteful man....
Even though she is cured, so happy about that part, she still deserves to go. She went through so much and it was promised to her. The Dad is willing to take her later on in life, which I give him praise for that and his reasonings however, she still was looking forward to going and was promised. She should go now and enjoy it then her Dad can take her when she is older. Life is too short to put living on hold and she already did that while she was sick.
so you saying that because she was promised she should go? Wow I would like to live in the world where everything that is promised to you happens. I definitely take the side of the dad if he is doing this for the reason that 1.this could pay for another child that is in their last minutes 2.he would pay for the trip so it doesn't take away from the first reason 3. he explains to her why he wants her to wait and explains that "you may not understand it right now, but when you get older you will understand the huge, monumentus thing you did for someone else, and I love you."
If he didn't sign it because of some hidden motive or self promotion, this I completely disagree with him.
In the end, the only one allowed to judge is God and everyones real thoughts and feelings will be seen clearly in their hearts.
He will never take her. He works part time at Wal Mart and has 3 other children (plus 1 from his wife) . He has never held a job for longer than a few months.
Her lowlife sperm doner is the one who claims she is "cured", Poolchick. The reality is the cancer is in remission, & they are checking her every month for signs of a recurrence of the cancer. In 1 out of 10 children the cancer comes back. If that happens in the next 18 months the situation is dire, with a 80% death rate. If it happen between 18 months & 8 years it is still grim with a 50% death rate. Meanwhile there are the side effects of treatment to struggle with.
My Chemo left behind hearing loss, damage to the fine motor area of my brain, a reduced immune system, & a system wide infection that formed masses in my organs & invaded my bone marrow. If it did that to me, an adult, imagine what cancer treatments would do to a small child!
The guy has rocks in his head for trying to take the trip away from the child. I hope it does not affect her recovery. Stress can lower the immune system.
Having been a caretaker for someone with cancer it is exhausting to say the least..and I am not the one who had cancer... this family deserves to go enjoy themselves!!!! This little girl and her mom deseve this !!!The dad is being selfish!!!
The point isn't whether or not she should go on the trip. The whole point is that daddy dearest is being a total dirtbag. A group of men need to go to his home and "explain" the situation to him. Daddy isn't prohibiting his daughter from this trip because he is some steller, and noble example of manhood. If that were the case, he and mama would still be together, or at the very least, he would have been more active in his daughters life while she was getting treatments. No, he doesn't give a flip about the money at make a wish. He's a loser.
This youg girl has been through hell and to have her own father deny her the opportunity to fullfill her dream is apprehensible. Hopefully he will have enough compassion to take her to Disney World on his own.
My family had the chance to go on a trip to Disney World thru the make a wish foundation a few years ago. My little sister struggled with cancer and was not expected to make it thru but she beat the odds. My sister went thru hell and back for 3 years (age 4-7) and my parents were left almost a million dollars in debt from her hospital stays and treatments. There is no way they would have been able to take her somewhere special without the make-a-wish foundation. It really upsets me that this man wont let his daughter go thru the foundation and it annoys me even more that he says he will pay for it. How naive can he be? Of course anybody who has had a loved one go thru cancer doesnt want to think about the possibility of it coming back but the reality is that it does. Even after almost 4 years of living cancer free we live knowing full well that it could come back again anytime. Let this poor girl, who has suffered more than her father apparently can comprehend, go now while she is able to because who knows what her future holds.
I guess this wonderful movment should only be for incurable children.
Ameer Mirza
http://www.ameermirza.wordpress.com
Says dad was never married to mom, I wonder if he was around when the child was receiving all those treatments and in pain, if he is an absent parent and just trying to look good now he should shut up. Regarding the money if they now have enough to take the kid they should let someone else go
Some people seem to be upset that this child got better. What should happen if a child who appeared to not be responding to treatment and thought to be dying and thus was a recipient of a MAW gift? Should their parents be forced to give back the amount of the gift if "GASP" horror of horrors the child actually starts responding to a new treatment and gets better?Unfortunately, I believe some people on this comment board hope for just that. How dare that sick child trick people out of money by surviving.
Wow, with fathers like that, who needs politicians?
When we were kids, my sister was diagnosed with kidney failure. Make-A-Wish built my sister a sweet-ass, above-ground swimming pool in our backyard. Believe me, it meant the world to my sister. A lot of happiness for a lot of people came from that pool. Thank-you, Make-A-Wish.
Tell Daddy Dearest to go to hell!!!!!!!!!!!! The baby deserves to get away..
The father is a JERK. That little girl has been through a lot and what if the cancer comes back? You just never know with these things. Why not have her go when she is feeling better when she can enjoy it more???