Preschool cancer patient denied trip to Disney World by father who says she’s not sick enough. Photo via disneyworld.disney.go.com
The father of a 4-year-old leukemia patient who recently underwent two years of grueling cancer treatments, was denied a trip to Disney World by her father who claims his daughter is not sick enough to warrant such hand-outs. The trip was offered by the Make-A-Wish foundation, but the girl’s father isn’t allowing her to go. McKenna May is currently in remission, so when the Make-A-Wish foundation came forward with the offer, the girl’s father, William May of Toledo, Ohio said that such offers should be reserved for cancer victims with current struggles and grim prognoses, not those in remission.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, a spokesperson from the Make-A-Wish foundation said that McKenna qualifies because she’s had to undergo such invasive treatments.
Make-A-Wish requires that both parents consent in order to fulfill their offers. While McKenna’s mother, Whitney Hughes, gave consent, her father did not. The girl’s mother and grandmother are now trying to raise private funds from local area businesses in Ohio to get McKenna there on their own.
Hughes told the Sentinel Tribune that she believes McKenna’s father is using the trip to get back at her for disallowing visitation until recently. McKenna’s grandmother said the father participated very little in McKenna’s treatment and was only granted visitation rights earlier this year.
The Sentinel Tribune described McKenna’s trials through her cancer treatment, “She was diagnosed with leukemia in April 2010 and had her last treatment last month. During that time, she had 15 spinal taps to make sure the cancer hadn’t spread, multiple chemotherapy treatments, skin burns and vomiting from the chemo, and steroid injections that compromised her immune system. She was hospitalized four times due to high fevers. She won’t be ruled “cancer free” until five years after her last treatment.”
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