The Wish Process
Step 1 – Wish Referral
The Make-A-Wish Foundation® accepts wish referrals from one of several sources:
- The wish child.
- The child’s parent(s) or legal guardian(s)
- A medical professional treating the child, e.g. a doctor, nurse or social worker.
If you would like to refer a child for a wish, please download the application form below or contact the Wishgranting Department on: 01-205 2011.
Step 2 – Eligibility
Any child between the age of 3 and 17 living with a life-threatening illness may be eligible for a wish. The child’s treating consultant makes the final determination of whether the child is medically eligible to receive a wish and whether the child is able to participate in the wish.
Step 3 – The Wish
After the doctor confirms that the child is eligible, Make-A-Wish assigns a volunteer wish team to co-ordinate the wish-granting process. When a wish team first visit with a child, the volunteers begin by asking a simple question: “If you could have one wish, what would it be?” Usually, wishes are limited only by a child’s imagination. Most wishes fall into one of four categories: “I wish to go to……” “I wish to be…,” “I wish to meet…,” or “I wish to have…”
Once a child’s wish is approved and authorised by the treating consultant, the wish team sets out to make it come true.
Step 4 – Granting the Wish
After talking with the child, Make-A-Wish set out to create a magical wish experience for the child that will last a lifetime. Every effort is made to include the immediate family in the child’s wish. The wish experience often touches dozens, and sometimes hundreds of people who either help co-ordinate or are directly involved in the wish.
The wish experience created by us are made possible only through the support of generous donors and volunteers across the country.
