Andy's and Make a Wish make a Disney dream come true

Annie, who accesses our children’s services, was whisked away to a Disney experience at a hotel with her Mum and Nanny after Emily, a children’s nurse at the hospice nominated her for the trip.

Kay, Annie’s Mum, explained: “Emily put us forward but we weren’t too sure we’d get it due to Annie’s age. She's been through a lot in her life, but certainly these last six months we've had a bit of a rough patch. Just getting to be normal and seeing other kids like her, you know, she doesn't get to do that very often.”

After being accepted, the experience began almost immediately with packages arriving addressed to Annie full of Disney themed gifts and activity packs which “really helped build excitement”. They even received a £150 voucher for Photobox so they could create photo memories for the visit.

Finally the day came to travel to Staffordshire where the minute they pulled into the driveway, characters were there to welcome them. One in particular caught Annie’s eye.

“They knew that we'd been to Paris last year. Annie had not been very well, typically, and she really wanted to meet Stitch. That's her thing, Stitch is her favourite, but Stitch wasn't there the whole of our trip and she was very disappointed. So the people from Make a Wish asked what her dream would be and I said just to meet Stitch, simple as that. When we arrived, we saw Stitch in the distance and you could just see her face absolutely light up!

“It was a two night stay. All the food was included and there were so many gifts, there wasn't even half an hour to go back to the room because there was always something to do, a character meet, a show, the cinema, a craft activity. They even did a drone show at the end which was beautiful. There wasn't a minute that you didn't feel emotional.”

After a fun filled few days, it was time to go home. Kay said: “It was a bit of a downer driving home from that. I'd like to live there! And then on the way back they then sent another voucher for Uber Eats so we didn't have to cook when we arrived home. I just can’t believe how much we received, we’re truly grateful.

“We just want to say thank you to Emily for putting us forward and for Sophie, our wish maker, for making it so special. It was definitely one of the best three days we've ever had together. Just seeing her smiling all the time was brilliant.”