We Had A Wish - Georgia and Florence

12 year old Georgia couldn’t believe her luck when she met, and was serenaded by, her idol and recent Brit Award winner – Florence Welch of band-of-the-moment Florence and the Machine.

Georgia, from Welwyn City Garden, lives with a Brain Tumour and is a huge music fan; before she became ill she played the guitar and the flute. When she fell into a coma, hospital staff played music to her as this is believed to be therapeutic. Since coming out of the coma, Georgia has continued to have sessions of music therapy; mouthing along to a song during these sessions was one of the first signs that she was regaining awareness of her surroundings.

As her recovery progressed, Georgia had to undergo radiotherapy twice a day. During this she had to be alone and remain completely still, so she would take her favourite singer Florence’s album ‘Lungs’ with her to keep her company during these arduous sessions.

Make-A-Wish arranged for Georgia and her family to stay at a plush London hotel, where Florence came to meet them for afternoon tea. Georgia had come with a long list of questions to ask Florence, who was more than happy to answer them all. After that Florence sang them some songs, accompanied by one of her guitarists. The whole family was mesmerised as Florence serenaded them with their favourite songs.

Before leaving, Florence allowed Georgia to have a sneak preview at the dress she was due to wear at the recent Brit awards evening. Then she went off to rehearse for her performance at the awards with Dizzee Rascal. Florence even took some questions from Georgia to ask Dizzee and sent her his answers in a text message later that evening.

Florence said: “It was a pleasure to meet Georgia and her family. Georgia’s questions were the best and most thought-out questions I have ever answered. It took me a while to answer some of them because I had to think hard about some of my answers – they were pretty deep!”

Georgia’s mother Jane said: “Georgia was absolutely over the moon! This has been the most fantastic wish we could have asked for. Everyone has bent over backwards for us, especially Florence.

“We are thrilled. Thanks, Make-A-Wish, for making our little girl so happy.”

Make-A-Wish was only able to grant this wish because of the generous support of people and companies around the UK. Please help us to grant more magical wishes by making a donation today