A Hot Tub Wish Comes True

Most children diagnosed with a life-threatening disease use their Wish to go to a place like Disney, but for a young girl in Ontario, her Wish was a hot tub.

Seven year old Caitlin Blanchette was diagnosed in 2013 with a rare and severe disease called Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis, or RRP. It is a condition where lesions grow on her larynx, no matter how many surgeries she undergoes to remove them, and she has had 39 so far. It is a long-term disease with no sure treatment or cure, and two out of every 100,000 children in Canada are diagnosed, Caitlin being one. The growths return at whatever speed they want. The surgery only removes them temporarily.

Hot Tub vs Fidget Spinners

Her family applied to Make-A-Wish, and the young girl’s number one wish was a hot tub, and shopping for fidget spinners came as a second. “She decided that she wanted something that would last a little bit longer than a vacation so she chose either a hot tub or 100 fidget spinners,” Her mother, Tanya Parker, said.

On Tuesday the 21st of November, Make-A-Wish partnered with the town of Pembroke, Ontario, where Caitlin lives. “Everyone who heard about Caitlin’s wish wanted to participate in one way or another and make this as magical as possible for her,” said Annie-France Stiles of Make-A-Wish Eastern Ontario. “It was a fun and easy process working with everyone to make this happen and share the power of a wish.”

Hot Tub Pizza Party!

So at around 3:00 in the afternoon, Caitlin stepped outside of her school, Rockwood Public School, to be greeted by the excited calls of her classmates of her second grade and the kindergarten class, because her kindergarten teacher had followed Caitlin’s story. Along with Caitlin’s classmates, her grandparents came to witness their granddaughter’s wish.

After a red carpet walk from her school, she entered a limousine, provided by AAA Limousine & Coach, with her parents and three best friends. The limousine pulled up to her house where waiting for her in the backyard stood her greatest dream: a hot tub. Blok Pools and Hot Tubs had happily taken up Caitlin’s wish and sponsored the hot tub in full, according to Annie-France Stiles. Caitlin and her friends sat in the hot tub, then had a pizza party catered by Pizza Hut Pembroke.

After witnessing the sheer joy of her daughter upon receiving her wish, as well as the kindness of her community, Tanya said she was going to work toward seeing that other children diagnosed with RRP receive the wishes they desired. “I’d like to help other RRP patients, children with the same illness as Caitlin, and I would love to help them receive their wishes. A lot of them have been denied wishes and now that Caitlin has received her wish I think that there’s a lot of hope for these other children,” she said. “There’s not better experience than to see your child receive something so special.”

From the generosity of the community, this young girl is now able to relax in the warmth of her own hot tub, which will hopefully act as some comfort from the difficulty of her treatment and her condition.

http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/2017/11/23/make-a-wish-grants-pembroke-girls-ultimate-wish