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When You Wish Upon a Star: Amy’s Story

When You Wish Upon a Star has a simple mission, to grant the wishes of children living with a life-threatening illness. Dogs are a major comfort to so many of these children who for so many, are living the final moments of their life. When the pandemic hit, so many of those wishes were getting cancelled, including a young girl who had a dream to visit Crufts. That story broke our heart, and we just knew that this was one charity we needed to support with Bark Aid.

About When You Wish

The charity was founded in Nottingham by Barbara White in 1990 who was so inspired by a seriously ill four-year-old with a dream to meet Mickey Mouse that she wanted to bring smiles to the faces of many more brave and courageous children. 

Over the last 30 years we have continued to grant magical Wishes big and small, with over 18,000 Wishes granted across the UK to date. 2020 was due to be a huge celebration for the charity, as it’s our 30th birthday year. However, along with the rest of the world, we have been truly rocked by the Covid19 pandemic and are now facing very different challenges.

When we were chosen as one of the lucky charities to benefit from Bark Aid, we were over the moon! Bark Aid’s aim to lift community spirits in this difficult time fits perfectly with When You Wish Upon a Star’s mission to lift the spirits of our Wish children and families, offering a small distraction from hospital visits and treatments. Our nominated category, ‘Child’s Best Furiend’, also couldn’t be more perfect.

Amy’s Story

Many children simply wish for some time with their friends, like 11-year-old Amy did. Amy was suffering from Ewings cancer and had missed out on a lot of the normal things 11-year-olds like to do.

Her Wish was for a princess birthday party for 140 of her most special friends and family. We were honoured to be able to grant Amy’s Wish, but we were only able to do so with the amazing generosity of our wonderful supporters. As we receive no government or national funding, every penny comes from our supporters across the UK.

For children like Amy, a Wish is a chance to be a normal child again. It’s the chance to put sad memories to one side and create new, magical ones with friends and family (furry ones most definitely included!). We try to make every single Wish we grant extra-special, which means we often call on our fabulous team of volunteers who donate their skills to produce photos and videos galore for the families to keep forever. 

Extra Wishes To Treat The Children

As well as individual Wishes, the charity also arranges a couple of extra treats around Christmas time each year. In 2019 we went for a wonderful weekend away to Winter Wonderland, deep in the middle of Sherwood Forest. We also chartered 2 planes directly to Lapland, where the real Santa Claus was waiting to greet our Wish families for a day of sledging, reindeers and presents galore! These winter trips are the pinnacle of our year and help us whisk the whole family away for some much-needed respite and relaxation.

With all our fundraising events on hold for the time being, our fundraising team is working hard to find new ways to raise funds. That’s why your small donation is so valuable to us; we genuinely couldn’t do what we do without you! So please take a second to snap a picture of your little one with their furry ‘furiend’ – we can’t wait to see your pictures!

How to Suppawt When You Wish Upon a Star

You can donate to When You Wish Upon A Star via the Just Giving page.

Your donation will help to grant a wish of a very brave and courageous child.

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