Would Disney help with a donation request for a sick child?

[aussiedaisy]

Hi,
My best friend has a son who has a major congenital deformity which at 7 years old leaves him incontinent of urine, he has to wear pads and also has major genital deformity, hip deformity etc and kidney problems. He has to come to the USA to John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore in June which is the only place that specialises in this dreadful disorder called extrophy. Australian surgeons are not specialised enough to perform it unfortunately. Anyway, the family have had to raise $300,000 for this surgery and they are so lovely and down to earth just taking it as it goes. The father has Multiple Sclerosis and they also have 3 year old twins. They want to give their son a 'good time' before the 13 hour surgery just in case there are complications. So, me being the big Disney fan has tried all avenues including travel agents etc with no luck to try and see if I can get someone to donate some disneyworld tickets and accommodation for the family as they will be fairly close to Florida, I think Baltimore is around 5-7 hours away??? Anyway, does anyone know how I can go about contacting Disney head office, or if it is worth trying at all....I have pretty much given up hope but I thought this is my last option to help them have a great time together as a family before Ben's surgery. Ben has a registered fund here in Australia so I am able to prove this is all above board. If anyone has any ideas for me....anything at all which may help that would be fantastic. Ben has a website at www.myspace.com/boost4ben (p.s please ignore the 'age' section in Ben's profile, Myspace apparantly wouldn't allow a childs age to be put up so they just put 100 to be able to use the site)

 

[CleveRocks]

Hey, can't hurt to try ... you never know. But I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Baltimore and Disney World are about 900 miles apart, similar to the distance from Melbourne to Brisbane, if that helps you translate it. Figure a 14 hour drive or a 2 hour flight.

Good luck!

 

[smilechaser]

did you try the 'make a wish foundation', not sure of how to contact them but I am sure you can look it up online. I know of a few people they have helped in the past. Its worth a try!

 

[aussiedaisy]

Thanks smilechaser, yes we have tried make a wish foundation in Australia but they will only allow trips within Australia and not overseas...and seeing as the family are going to be in Baltimore it would be better and closer for them to go to WDW, plus they really want to go there as we don't really have as good theme parks over here which purvey the magic like Disney does!

 

[CleveRocks]

did you try the 'make a wish foundation', not sure of how to contact them but I am sure you can look it up online. I know of a few people they have helped in the past. Its worth a try!

Although each local Make-A-Wish chapter runs fairly independently, almost all of them have "admissions criteria" for granting wishes. Almost all limit granting wishes to children with a statistically high likelihood of dying, which is determined by diagnosis. I learned this when my wife got involved with them (from the medical side) in a city we used to live in.

 

[Charleyann]

They will give kids tickets to theme parks. Kids who are sick. I don't have the website, but I helped a friend out this way. She did get tickets at no cost. You have to be able to verify the child's illness as life threatening / terminal. etc.

I'm sure you can find the website under goggle search by typing in " Give the kids the World" They also provide tickets to the various Wish organizationS!

Good Luck

Charleyann

 

[jessica52877]

Baltimore is a LONG way from Florida. I am not sure that the family would think of it as doable. Another choice might be Sesame Place with Sesame Street Characters, it is not too far from Baltimore.

 

[KayR]

Give Kids the World has a special village near Disney where the familes are house. It has all that the kids need for their special trip.

http://www.gktw.org/?gclid=CKOw77r0rooCFT5GGAodxxS4uw

It does look as though the child would need to be referred by an organization - but perhaps you could find one in Baltimore affiliated to the hospital that would help...

--Kay