Make-A-Wish in 2010

Read our Chief Executive's New Year Message...

First of all, a very Happy New Year to everyone!

2009 was a very exciting year for us, with success on both the fundraising and wishgranting fronts.

Our three flagship Balls were all a tremendous success, raising fantastic amounts of money and being attended by well-known personalities, such as Jude Law, Ainsley Harriot and TV’s Dragons. We also received our biggest-ever donation from a single event, Andrew Reynolds’ Entrepreneurs Bootcamp, and we strengthened our existing partnerships with major business like Cadbury, Fairy and Comet.

But granting magical wishes is what we really do and we were delighted to create hundreds of very special moments. We granted wishes to children who wanted to swim with dolphins or to be a zookeeper for the day; we helped little girls to be princesses or Snow White and little boys to be James Bond or a soldier in the British Army. We converted an ex-taxi to take a wheelchair and a new Mini so it could be driven using hand controls; we made bedrooms into pink fairy dells and added playgrounds to back gardens.

We were, as ever, fortunate to be helped with some of our wishes by kind-hearted celebrities. In 2009, they included motor-racing stars Jenson Button (a Patron since 2005) and Dani Pedrosa; comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams; bands Take That and Girls Aloud; TV stars Peter Andre and Paul O’Grady – and we mustn’t forget the likes of Thomas the Tank Engine, Basil Brush and Peppa Pig, all of whom were involved in wishes during 2009.

So, what were the results? We’re delighted to be able to report that Make-A-Wish was able to grant 12% more wishes in 2009 compared to 2008, which is great news for us on our journey towards our aim of granting 1,000 wishes per year by 2012.

As we anticipated, almost 1,000 children turned to us in 2009, and we expect the figure for 2010 to be at least as large. But we want to reach more than just these: there are 20,000 children in the UK living with life-threatening illnesses and we want to grant a magical wish to every one of them.

To help us reach this goal, we need to raise £5 million in 2010. We have been fortunate in challenging times to have had such wonderful support from our many friends, donors and volunteers: we face the New Year grateful for this help and hopeful that their support will continue through the year ahead.

If you would like to make an donation to Make-A-Wish, please click on the ‘Donate Online Now’ button above, or call 01276 40 50 80.