KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Making wishes come true is what the Make-A-Wish Foundation is all about. But they couldn’t do it without the help of others.
Saturday thousands came out for the eighth annual ‘Walk for Wishes’ at Crown Center.
The event will benefit children from right here in the metro, like Gavin Beaver, who is your typical 10-year-old boy.
Gavin is still a little embarrassed by a kiss from mom. A mom who never thought a sore leg would lead to a life threatening diagnosis.
“It was a complete surprise, he had some pain in his hip and we kept taking him to the doctor,” said Julie Beaver, Gavin’s mom.
Doctors said it was Ewing’s Sarcoma, which is a rare disease where cancer cells are found in the bone or in soft tissue of the body.
After emergency surgery to remove a tumor, which had wrapped itself around his spine, 17 rounds of chemo and 28 rounds of radiation there is now no evidence of the disease.
“Now he’s three months post treatment and he’s doing great,” said Julie Beaver.
No evidence of disease means fewer trips to the hospital, but there’s another trip Gavin can’t wait to take.
“I asked to go to Scotland,” said Gavin Beaver. “Dad’s going and mom’s going and I’m going.”
Thanks to the Make-A-Wish foundation and fundraising events like Saturday’s walk, every year dozens of metro kids’ wishes come true.
Gavin Beaver will go to Scotland this summer.
A different Gavin, six-year-old Gavin Andersen, wanted to go to Florida. In 2012 his entire family went to Disney world.
“There you get ice cream for breakfast you get to go on rides and you don’t have to worry about the cost. You don’t have to worry about ‘hey are we going to have money for our next meal?’” said Aubrey Andersen, Gavin’s mom.
Gavin Anderson, who has an auto immune disease that attacks his lungs, is close to full remission. His mom Aubrey says the trip helped make her family whole again.
“They make everything just seem like it just goes away for the short period of time,” she said.
Wishes granting hope, strength and joy to kids when they need it the most.
Event organizers hoped to raise $250,000 on Saturday, which is enough money to grant 50 new wishes to kids in the Kansas City Metro.
