Wishes change lives forever. Our wish is to provide hope, strength and joy to our wish kids during a very difficult time. The Guelph Wish Fund for Children has been able to provide wishes to deserving children in our community. With continued support, we will continue to do so well into the future. We thank the families of our wish kids for sharing their stories with us. Here are some of them.
Mason came to the Wish Fund as a teen struggling with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and facing some significant physical and mental challenges from this disease. Despite all how FASD can make life challenging, Mason maintains a can-do attitude and tries his best as he pursues his ambitions. Upon becoming a Wish Kid, Mason got a specialized watch that...
Valentina is a New Year's baby and turned 4 years old on January 1st, 2023. Valentina suffered a brain bleed while in utero and as a result, she has cerebral palsy which severely affects her muscle tone and mobility. Half of her body is quite stiff—she cannot crawl or stand up, or walk on her own. Through regular physiotherapy, she is doing her...
December 7, 2017. It had been four days since my daughter Sophie had been to the washroom. The doctor we visited said that it seemed like constipation and gave us medicine, but it did not help. Finally, we went to the emergency room at Georgetown hospital. The doctors did an ultrasound and found over 300 ml of fluid in...
Meet Natalia. A little happy girl from a small town near Guelph. Just one day after her first birthday Natalia was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with aggressive blood cancer - AML leukemia. Her first day in McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton involved spinal tap surgery and blood and platelets transfusion which turned out to be one...
Nolan’s story begins at the 20wk anatomy scan ultrasound. What started as a routine ultrasound quickly turned our lives upside down, our one-hour appointment turned into 3hours and many questions left unanswered. The next couple of weeks...
Jayco and Alex (11 and 9) are two Inuit boys full of energy! They love to climb trees and swing on monkey bars, swim, bike and both like all things Pokemon. They both have an invisible disability called FASD as well as an intellectual disability. FASD does make day-to-day activities hard as they struggle with emotional regulation, and social skills (especially...
. Lenny has ‘16p11.2’, a rare genetic disorder that is not widely known in the medical or broader community. Due to his condition, Lenny faces higher risks for obesity, social and cognitive disabilities, encephalitis, psychological (violence & anger) issues and severe learning impairments...
We welcomed our first child in July 2006. After a complication-free pregnancy and delivery, we were surprised to see that our baby boy had 12 toes and 11 fingers. There were no other concerns, but he’d be followed closely for the first year. Over that year Liam was gaining weight rapidly, had difficulty reaching milestones and had several respiratory infections....
Samantha was diagnosed with cancer when she was two years old. After a year of chemotherapy and multiple complex surgeries, at three she was declared to be in remission. While she continues to be followed closely by her...
Kaitlyn is a happy and compassionate 13-year-old girl who loves dolls, Harry Potter and all things tropical! She was diagnosed with Bardet Biedl syndrome at 1 year old, but it was suspected on the 20-week anatomical ultrasound since her older brother...
Iszack was born May 15, 2013. Our third child. At his two month wellness check our doctor told us that she was concerned about our baby's eyes, specifically that he may not be able to see. We were upset and in shock. After several specialists here in Guelph we were referred to Mcmaster Children's hospital to see a paediatric Opthalmologist....
Dalton is a sweet and caring 11-year-old, who likes school, to draw and anime. In his spare time, he also loves to watch movies, play video games and board games. Dalton was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy at the age of 4, he gets around mainly with a scooter. The disease is progressing but he is full of hope and...
After being followed closely by McMaster Children’s Hospital for most of the pregnancy, because of severe IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction), it was decided to induce labour to allow her better growth in the NICU at 35 weeks. Little Anna Elizabeth was born at 2lb 11oz - about half the size that a baby would normally be by that point!...
Following a very smooth pregnancy during which I experienced zero morning sickness, at forty-one weeks and a lengthy labour of 72 hours and 12 minutes, our baby was on the way. During labour, I had made 3 trips to Guelph General Hospital before dilation was enough to be emitted. Our baby boy was born in January 2017 and was...
After an uneventful labour and delivery, Lucas was born in January 2016 at 38 weeks. We held him for 27 minutes before he needed breathing support and was taken to the NICU at McMaster Children’s Hospital. Thankfully, we knew...
On August 6, 2014, our three-year-old Emma was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). I clearly remember hearing the doctor at SickKids explain that while Emma does have cancer, we could consider ourselves lucky. With a cure rate of over 80%, we had a good chance of surviving this cancer. With a 1 in 9 chance of losing my...
Kinsley Valerie Rose Bondi was born April 4, 2019, at 30+2 weeks at Cambridge memorial hospital. After my water broke, I was rushed to the hospital and heard the doctor say that her heart rate was fluctuating and that they needed to perform an emergency C section. My baby was intubated and rushed to McMaster Children’s Hospital hours after...
We were anticipating the arrival of our baby. We had received a good report from the 12-week ultrasound. At 18 weeks at a routine doctor appointment, I was told that something was unusual with my blood work, that they had previously...
Meet Levi, he was born on June 15th, 2017 at 31 weeks 5 days at McMaster Children’s Hospital. What started out as a seemingly normal prematurity course quickly changed and our lives were turned upside down. Levi was scheduled to receive a...
Finding out that your beautiful newborn baby boy has severe hemophilia can be very upsetting. As I looked down at Luka 5 days old with every inch of his perfectness, I thought there must have been a mistake. Maybe the lab...
After a week of hospitalization for Mom, Boone arrived at 8:40 am on June 27th, 2019. He was born at a gestation of 24 weeks and 5 days weighing only 660 grams and was 23.5 cm long. When we tried to quantify how little he truly was we joked that one of our chicken breasts was about the same size....
Noah was born on July 23, 2015. I had a typical pregnancy with no signs of any complications or thoughts that I would encounter any surprises upon delivery. As soon as Noah was born he immediately required oxygen and was rushed to the NICU. Upon assessment from the doctors and nurses, he seemed to be struggling with the meconium...
When Jamie was born, we wasted a lot of tears grieving something that we’ve come to learn is a blessing. We were given an unexpected birth diagnosis of Down syndrome. There is a lot of unknown when you have a child with a disability. What will their capabilities be? What will their future look like? The unknown is a very...
Meet Mason! Our fun, loving, energetic middle son was born April 4th, 2013, weighing a healthy 8 lbs. 4 oz. with hair so white we could barely see it! Immediately, we were in love with our family’s newest addition. His older brother, Cole, finally had a sibling after five and a half years of being an only child....
RianaFaith was born at 35 weeks in December of 2013. There were no complications throughout the pregnancy and I had a normal delivery. RianaFaith has a personality larger than life itself and can bring a smile to everyone she meets. She is super friendly and loving, she approaches everyone with no concept of danger. Riri thrives on music (especially...
Looking at the happy, active, vibrant 4-year-old now, you’d never guess the struggles that Seamus faced in the first few months of his life. In fact, even despite his challenges, he’s always been a very happy, awesome little boy. As first-time parents, we followed all of the guidelines for a healthy pregnancy, even opting for pre-natal screening to rule out...
Briar was a tornado from the moment I knew she existed. From 22 weeks gestation until her birth at 24 weeks and 5 days gestation, she was monitored constantly in utero, at McMaster Children's Hospital. She cartwheeled and hid from nurses as they tried to view her on ultrasounds. Each additional day, each hour, became a blessing to have, as...
On September 1st, 2013, our little boy entered the world. Little did we know that our life was literally going to be turned upside down and very fast. After the doctors examined Colton, they came and told us that he was very floppy. I remember saying, "of course he is, he was just born." The doctor said, "no, he's...
Our family first met Isaac, online, when his profile was highlighted on an adoption based website called Reece's Rainbow. He was eligible for adoption in Ukraine, and my husband and I knew that he was meant to be part of our family. Within a year of extensive paperwork, a home study, and fundraising to finance his adoption, we flew to...
Penny was born in 2013 with Spina Bifida – lipomyelomeningocele; this was diagnosed by ultrasound at 30 weeks gestation. When she was born, no one was sure if she would have use of her legs or what other difficulties she might face. Luckily, she had very little complications at first and was able to come home after 5 days spent...
At Jessica’s one year checkup in the summer of 2005, her doctor noted that her one leg appeared longer than the other and we were then referred to McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton. Her diagnosis was Hemihypertrophy - one of her legs was growing faster than the other. At the age of three Jessica was admitted for her first...
On June 6, 2012, our lives were changed forever. Not only were we blessed to become parents, but our vision of what parenthood would look like was completely changed. Mark was born with Tracheoesophageal Fistula and Esophageal Atresia (TEF/EA). This meant, his esophagus from his mouth ended in a pouch and his esophagus from his stomach came up and attached to...
In March 2014, my wife and I attended an adoption event, that profiled kiddos in foster care throughout Ontario. When we came to the booth that had Nollan’s photo displayed, we both stopped and looked at each other. The photo was of a sweet little boy with little wire-framed glasses. We knew he was our son. When we met Nollan for...
Josiah was our fifth child. He was born at 36 weeks because of complications prior to birth. He had a very weak cry and didn't breathe right away so was rushed to the NICU where he remained for 1 week. During this time he was fed with a feeding tube. There was no indicator that there were any issues except for...
Eliza was born safe and healthy on June 10, 2014 and came home a couple days later to meet her older sister and brother. However, within a month we started to have some concerns about her vision and some twitches she was having. Over the next 2 months the “twitches” changed into full body jerks and we were waiting on...
Liam was born on Dec 15, 2010 at McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton. Like most babies, he had 10 fingers and 10 toes, but something was missing in the middle. Liam’s stomach didn’t close all the way in utero and he was born with his bowel and liver on the outside. This condition is called Omphalocele, a birth defect that...
Tristan has a rare brain condition called Polymicrogyria (PMG). PMG is a condition characterized by abnormal development of the brain before birth in which the neurons become disorganized and land in the wrong places. In children born with PMG, the brain develops too many folds, and the folds are unusually small. These small folds do not process the information it receives...
We are Jason and Melody, and this is our family - Evan, Rowan, Calvin and Scarlett. Jason and I were both born in this area and have called Guelph and Wellington County our home for almost 38 years now! In 2012 life was moving at full speed and quickly got even busier when we were surprised to welcome our fourth...
April 2019, we found out we were expecting our third baby; we were over the moon and looking forward to adding to our beautiful family. June 2019, I went to Karma Clinic for my ultrasound, and they found marks on the ultrasound that showed abnormalities to thefetus. We were referred to McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton for a high-risk pregnancy...