Over the last 33 years the magnificent Patricia Pearce MBE and her charity, Dreamflight, has taken thousands of seriously ill and disabled children to Florida. Every child that is nominated/selected to go on Dreamflight is spending every day of their life managing an illness or disability. For 10 days, despite being surrounded by hundreds of children who are also unwell or disabled, nobody is! Sounds like a bit of an oxymoron I know but just try and picture it. These children are not only joined by other children in the same boat as them but also by amazing medical staff to help make sure medication is taken on time, physio exercises are done etc. So if your escort is a medical professional thinking about all these things then you don't need to. For 10 days you can focus on being a child who is joined by other children all there for one reason - to enjoy every second of every day doing things you wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to. Oh and something I haven't mentioned yet ... There's no parents or guardians. Now considering there are some young children on this trip you might be thinking oh my! But like I have already mentioned these VIC's are surrounded by some of the countries best nurse, doctors, physios and more. They couldn't be in better hands! It wasn't actually until this year that I understood how it must be allowing your child to go with Dreamflight. Like I have mentioned 10 years ago I went on the trip so I know exactly what it's like to be a VIC because I was one! And I cannot thank Dreamflight enough for what it gave me and I don't just mean physically taking me to Florida but for the personality traits I gained in the process. I came home more confident, more independent and more motivated than I ever thought was possible. I would go as far as to credit the trip and my group (The Shrekkies) for helping me get to where I am today! But anyway back to my experience of this years trip! Myself and y boyfriend Dom were invited along to last years departure party after the charity, and my previous group leader, had heard about my collaboration with ASOS and all the other interesting things I had been up to since 2009. It was such an honour to be there last year. It was so overwhelming being back involved with the charity but this time to help contribute to other children's experiences before they boarded the plane to Orlando. They had already said about us returning for the departure party this year which of course straight away we said yes. But earlier on this year whilst at last years Shrekkies reunion, where we got to watch the video from their trip, I had a bit of a eureka moment.
Let me just reiterate that every child that gets on that plane is thoroughly deserving of their seat but for me, with Maddie, I know WHY she was deserving and that made it all the more special for me. Then there is the cherry on the cake...knowing she was going because I nominated her! No wonder I cried right?! So yeah! If you haven't heard of Dreamflight before I hope this gives you a slight insight! Not only does Pat, her charity and all the amazing group leaders/escorts take these VIC's to all the best theme parks in Orlando, Florida. They also bring back children who smiler that little bit bigger, laugh that little bit louder and most importantly have learnt how to jump life's cruel hurdles that little bit higher! They return with more confidence, independence and motivation than you can imagine.
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