Delivering Mission At A National Scale With Meaghan Stovel McKnight, CEO, Make-A-Wish Canada

A wish is far more than a fleeting moment of joy; it is a scientifically-backed medical intervention that can fundamentally alter a child’s healing journey. Meaghan Stovel McKnight, CEO of Make-A-Wish Canada, joins the conversation to dismantle the “last wish” myth and replace it with the “Wishes are Medicine” framework, which highlights the measurable clinical impact of hope on critical illness. Beyond the mission, she offers a candid look at leading a national transformation—moving the organization from a post-pandemic scarcity mindset to a culture of abundance by investing in technology, talent, and a “constellation of leaders.” From the logistical challenge of granting wishes in 600 unique communities to the vulnerability required to lead from the C-suite, this discussion bridges the gap between high-level operational strategy and the raw, emotional heart of the social profit sector.

—

Listen to the podcast here

 

Delivering Mission At A National Scale With Meaghan Stovel McKnight, CEO, Make-A-Wish Canada

In this episode, we’re joined by Meaghan Stovel McKnight, CEO of Make-A-Wish Canada. Meaghan brings over twenty years of leadership experience, guiding organizations through growth, transformation, and operational excellence. She has led hospital foundations and national charities, modernizing operations, strengthening fundraising programs, and building high-performance teams along the way.

Meaghan is a passionate advocate for the essential role of the charitable sector in supporting the health and well-being of our communities, a belief that I share wholeheartedly. Meaghan talks about leading an organization where the donors only sort of know or most people only sort of know what Make-A-Wish does, educating them, changing the story, and transforming the organization along the way. It is a powerful journey of an organization at the top of its game and I welcome you to enjoy this episode with Meaghan Stovel McKnight.

—

Welcome to the show, Meaghan.

Thank you so much, Doug. Great to be here.

Meaghan, we are going to cover a lot of topics in our conversation if the stack of questions in front of me has anything to say about it. Really looking forward to the conversation. As we get started, share for our readers what is Make-A-Wish Canada? Who are you and who do you serve?

I think we’re a unique organization because I think a lot of people know of us, but they don’t really know us. Make-A-Wish Canada supports the health and wellness of children and families facing the devastation of childhood critical illness. We do this through the play-based intervention of a wish. The harsh reality is that over 4,000 children each year are diagnosed with a critical illness. That’s one every two hours.

We support these children, children with 1 of 100 types of high-risk life-threatening medical conditions. We’re a national children’s health charity and we work alongside other children’s health organizations doing extraordinary work along that continuum of care from early intervention through to acute treatments like at children’s hospitals, long-term support. We treat kids who are sick now and we support building more resilient children, families, and communities through that challenge of childhood critical illness.

It is a very important and I’m sure a very emotional place to work and good work to do. I’m curious how you approach that. You said it at the outset, most people know of us, people may think they know exactly what you do. I’m sure it’s more complicated than that. When someone says, “Tell me more about what you do, I know that you help kids make wishes true for sick children,” how do you augment that understanding?

Beyond The Gift: Why A Wish Is A Journey, Not A Moment

I think a common misnomer is that people think a wish is just an item or a gift or a moment in time. What many people don’t realize is that wishes are actually carefully curated journeys designed to complement a child’s medical journey, and that they actually have measurable medical impact. We can grant a wish in as fast as 24 hours for a child who is palliative or a wish can be uniquely designed to go for several years to complement that specific child’s treatment journey.

Wishes are carefully curated journeys, designed to complement a child’s medical journey, and they can have measurable medical impact. Share on X

We don’t have the one wish that we dole out. It’s very child-guided, child-led. With supportive out-reaches or wish activities planned at the right time, research shows that when a wish is prescribed alongside medical treatment, it can reduce stress, improve coping, and even decrease unplanned hospital visits.

The other misperception I think about Make-A-Wish is many people think of us as a last wish organization. That is not the case. We deliver wishes that heal. We’re supporting not only the child but the siblings, the entire family, because no child faces critical illness alone. Critical illness affects everyone around them in that family.

I think that’s one of the most eye-opening experiences for me in this role, meeting parents, meeting siblings, meeting loved ones, and understanding that unique medical intervention that actually supports all of them. Many wish children and parents speak directly to this impact, sharing that their wish gave them the opportunity to reconnect, to regain hope and move forward together as a family through critical illness. It’s true some of our children do pass away, but the wish serves as that opportunity for family bonding and connection and supports the siblings and the parents after the child has passed. The wish just serves more than the child and we absolutely deliver wishes that heal.

I appreciate you adding that layer of nuance or that layer of understanding into the conversation. It brings up for me one of the things I think across the social profit sector here in Canada and beyond, organizations are challenged with the power of the single moment, the single intervention, and being able to offer those interventions at scale. I know that’s something that at Make-A-Wish Canada you’ve talked a lot about, thought a lot about, acted on. How do you approach that question of the power of the moment, of the one intervention, and the importance of being able to offer that at scale?

It’s such a balance. We want to make sure that we are not a wish factory. That is not the case at all. Each wish is unique for that child. We have an enormous country here, not only geographically but culturally. You think of coast to coast to coast, and if I had to sum up what we’re focusing on right now, it’s really delivering on that mission that our goal is to grant the wish of every eligible child.

It’s unique in that we go to where they are. Our wishes in 2024, we granted over 1,800 wishes and they were granted in over 600 unique communities. We go to them, whether they’re in rural Newfoundland, Northern Nunavut, or out on Vancouver Island, we take the wish to that child in their community. This is requiring a real rethink of our organization, a transformation. We’re focused on that right now.

We think about it in three specific ways, Doug. We think about strengthening the science behind our impact so people really understand the intervention and the purpose of what we do. Sharpening how we tell our story because we know stories are the ways that people understand impact and can feel connection and then building that capacity in our organization to strategically deliver at scale from coast to coast to coast.

As CEO, you are often probably first in those conversations or in most of those conversations about what that transformation is and how it’s going to roll out across the organization. Let’s not start internal. Let’s start with those external partners, those donors. Which of those three is the hardest or do you find the most challenging to communicate to the donors that you’re working with that support your organization?

Wishes Are Medicine: The Science Behind Clinical Healing Outcomes

I think we’ve spent the most time in the last couple of years really on the first one when it comes to donors, is the science behind the impact. It’s probably because people think they know they’ve heard of us, but they don’t understand us. We’ve spent a lot of time really investing in understanding the research behind the science of wish granting because science matters. This is not just a nice-to-have, this is a need-to-have.

We’ve always known that wishes change lives, we see that in the stories we tell, but now through our Wishes Are Medicine platform, we’re showing the world that wishes improve health outcomes. It’s backed by research. It shows the physical benefits of wishes, that wishes decrease cortisol, they increase endogenous opioids, all of those incredible positive impacts. The psychological benefits, decreased depression and anxiety, increase of self-esteem, confidence, and hope.

 

Also, the capability of wishes to actually improve the healthcare journey, that 100% of medical providers said that the wish was a turning point in that child’s medical treatment or 90% of clinicians said that the wish increased compliance with treatment for the child. Really wrapping that up in a way that we can communicate to donors to inspire them to be part of this movement. The science behind wishes, I think, has been the key to unlocking that and that’s our Wishes Are Medicine platform.

That’s very powerful and quite impressive. Are there donors that like the way they perceive you to be and don’t want to get confused with the science or like, “that’s not what motivates me to give to Make-A-Wish”?

I think every donor has unique motivations. I think it’s important for us as fundraisers, we have to be better listeners than speakers. It our job is to understand those donors, whether they are community-based donors, it could be a wish alumnus who wants to give back and maybe wants to run a lemonade stand, it could be a corporate partner who’s really seeking to engage their employees in a mission that can really compel their employees to get involved.

It could be an individual donor who wants to make a significant impact in children’s health. Depending on who that donor is, we will present more stories or more science or a combination of both, because our job is to understand what they’re trying to accomplish and if our mission marries up to that demonstrate that. If it’s not, then we’re not the right place for them to make a really philanthropic impact the way they want to.

Knowing what you represent to different styles of donors is such an important and powerful tool for organizations to know that some donors don’t want the science because the gift is an emotional or it’s in memory or it’s coming from a very emotional place and the science is distracting. There are others for whom the emotion feels just as distracting, “No, tell me what the science, tell me what the numbers are.” I’m curious, as CEO, how do you tell the difference when you’re going into a conversation with a prospective donor?

As in any discovery meeting, whether it’s with a ten-year-old who wants to do a lemonade stand or maybe a significant family foundation, we want to understand what they’re trying to accomplish and ask to them what brought them to our mission. I typically would tell a wish story and you can understand the impact and what really resonates with them. I think a lot of what we do is about listening. I think one of most joyous parts of my journey at Make-A-Wish has been going from coast to coast and meeting the Make-A-Wish community.

I think the people that are drawn to this community, it’s really extraordinary. When I first got the job and the posting went out on LinkedIn, I actually had someone I worked with at a job probably fifteen years earlier reach out to me, and I worked with him at the time that his daughter was a wish kid and I didn’t know that.

These people that come out of the woodwork of, “My best friend when I was a child was a wish kid and this is what happened.” I was at the gym and I mentioned that I work at Make-A-Wish and the gentleman behind the desk told me that his girlfriend’s sister was a wish kid. The community around wish granting is a tie that binds because I think once you are connected and you understand the life-changing impact of it, you’re sold and you want other people to understand it. It is just simply not a nice-to-have, it is a need-to-have and once you’ve experienced it, you know.

I can believe that for sure. How are the transformations showing up within the organization, that strengthening science behind wishes, sharpening how you tell your story, and building that capacity to deliver national scale?

Scaling Mission Impact: Why Technology Is Not Overhead

As I said, our mission is to reach every eligible child, so scale matters. This cannot be done through short-term thinking. This takes long-term thinking, which is often hard for charities, because building things like systems, partnerships, leadership capabilities, this isn’t done in a one-year business plan or a short-term investment.

It comes from having a commitment to a vision and delivering on that over time. It’s about thinking and spending strategically in support of our mission and building those capabilities with that vision. I take for example technology as an example. Technology is often miscategorized in the social profit sector as overhead spending, but it’s not a one-time investment. It requires sustained investment, it requires investing in talent and systems and software, but that is how you deliver mission impact at scale. It allows us to reach more people without linear cost increases. I look at AI, there’s not a strategic plan in the world right now that doesn’t have AI in it.

Investing in technology isn’t just buying computers. It’s about building capabilities that amplify mission, which requires sustained commitment and leadership. Share on X

I would say most charities haven’t moved into that space, but AI is helping us rethink how we’re maximizing using data, enhancing our fundraising and donor engagement, whether it’s things like project optimization or personalized donor experiences. All these things, it’s not just buying a system but you actually have to have the talent and the policies, the ethics, the quality control training, all of these things that are essential to build that.

Investing in technology is not just buying computers, it’s actually about building capabilities that amplify mission. That takes sustained commitment and leadership and it takes boards that are willing to make that sustained investment with the goal of reaching at scale. I would say the same for investing in people. We see lots of workforce challenges in the Canadian charitable sector right now, whether it’s recruitment or retention. We see lots of people jumping, private sector salaries are definitely more than our sector. How do we recruit and retain the best people?

I’m big on investing in our talent. We invest in training at our organization. In 2025, we took all of our directors and vps and we invested in courageous leadership training that taught people how to build strong cultures, embrace vulnerability, have tough conversations, because we’re not about building one-off stars, we need to build a constellation of leaders in order to deliver at scale.

 

This sounds like a wonderful place to work, I have to say. Those investments both in technology and in people are vitally important. We’ve had other guests on the show, now Senator Katherine Hay at Kids Help Phone, talking about that long-term investment especially in technology and remaking their organization. You said it takes a board willingness to see that.

I think so often the challenge in our sector is that scarcity mindset that says we only have this many and if we spend a little bit more than that or a little bit more than we have been spending, change has to be incremental and we need to apologize for spending more on the organization as we go along. When you came through the door as CEO, was the organization ready for that abundance, “Let’s invest,” or and if not how did you move from where it was to where it needed to be now?

I think the first thing always has to start with mission. You need a board that are true believers in the vision. It’s not in the one wish, but it’s in the wish for every child. We have been intentional. I’ve been intentional since day one. I was hired I think to be a change agent, it tends to be the person I am, but to really build that transformation agenda to serve every child across Canada as one unified Make-A-Wish coast to coast. With that, we developed our first three-year strategic plan that was guided by a multi-year financial model. When we’re making investments now, we are demonstrating how we believe these are going to pay off in year 2 and year 3.

I think sometimes in the charitable sector, people are nervous about saying that business case because what if it doesn’t grow? We have to have more than one poker in the fire in order for us to make it grow. We have to think in a diverse fundraising mix and all of those things. I think that we’ve been able to, as a leadership team, as a team, demonstrate that when we commit to growth, we deliver on it. We have grown every year for the last 3 years in support of that plan, and we just have had our next 3-year strategic plan approved out to 2028.

While there are definitely economic headwinds out there, I project we will continue to grow because we need to balance, we need to still invest in our organization and we will realize benefits from that. We need to get to more kids and we are absolutely committed to it. Every staff member, every one of our 1,200 volunteers, we are committed to our mission.

I can hear how hard it would be to say no to you. I’m curious, as you think about that journey and the three-year financial model, the strategic plan, anchoring in purpose, really good. So much of that comes from success comes from success. Demonstrating progress, which builds credibility, which sets you up for the next step forward. Was there a moment through that process with the board, with the organization, where you felt or you realized, “Okay, we got it now. It’s been really hard pushing this rock up the hill, but now it’s starting to move a little faster?”

From Scarcity To Abundance: Navigating The Transformation Journey

Yeah, I would say I think a lot of charities in Canada were faced a lot of challenge during the pandemic. Some managed to do very well during the pandemic. Make-A-Wish was one that was very significantly impacted, broadly, historically an event-based organization. When events shut down overnight, that has very significant impact on your fundraising.

In terms our mission delivery, 70% of our wishes have travel. When you’re not flying anywhere, that means our mission delivery went down too. When I came in 2022, it was our organization was in a tough place. It had been a couple of years that had really dampened the spirits of people who are really mission-inspired and it felt like the organization wasn’t going to deliver on its mission well.

I’m a person who believes change happens one conversation, one action at a time. I think one of the things I did as soon as I got here was I got on a plane with my mask and went coast to coast and I met everyone I possibly could. I went to every province, I met as many staff members as I could, volunteers, wish families, wish children, some of our medical advisors in children’s hospitals across the country. I really tried to reignite, hear people, and then also have their fingers on the clay of building the new strategic plan, but also have reignite that passion that, “We’re going to do this.” I think that every big win starts with a spark.

Every big win starts with a spark. Share on X

I think getting that first strategic plan published was probably a first step. It felt like, “Okay, we have a plan.” Now you got to deliver on that plan. I would say probably maybe 18 to 24 months into that, I remember our board chair saying, “It feels like we’re getting our swagger back,” and he has a nice thick, beautiful South African accent. When he says it, it sounds so much cooler. I think there was a moment there where we started to feel it.

The launch of our Wishes Are Medicine platform also just gave us another boost. There’s been so much great work done by our staff across the country and our volunteers in pursuit of that mission. Every time there’s a win, we really try to celebrate it. One thing I’d like us to get even better at is celebrating all of those wins big or small, because that is what gives you momentum for sure.

If I can just take you back to the that travel you did at the outset. Some ceos will come in and say we’re going to do a listening tour, some ceos come in and say we don’t have time for listening tours, here’s where we’re going. Very both on where organizations are and it depends on the style of the leader. When you do something as extensive of that and going across the country and coast to coast to coast and you come back, you’ve now had conversations and been in conversations about the organization that nobody else has been in all of those.

You now know more about what the essential partners, both internal and external, feel and think about the organization than anybody else. I’m sure it wasn’t like a day where you just sat at home and said ” I wonder what all this means,” but as it came together, how did you think about moving all of the pieces forward?

When we launched the first strategic plan, it had five work streams and we invited staff members to sign up to be in working groups for them. Whether it was industry trends or analytics, understanding our mission policies, we invited people to participate. I think that was really important because it wasn’t just my perspective of going across the country, but it was their perspective from where they are across the country. I’m based just outside Toronto, and I very much know that Toronto is not a great representation of the rest of Canada.

Actually, no place in Canada is representative of all of Canada. Canada is beautifully unique, even the Atlantic provinces are different, the Western provinces are different. They all have their very unique character. It’s so important that I think those voices that staff across the country were involved in the development of each of those work streams.

It wasn’t just my perspective. I had a unique perspective of my own journey, but it wasn’t just me who built that strategic plan. I don’t believe good strategic plans are built in a quarter office with a consultant team. I believe they’re built with the people who are going to deliver on it and who are part of that journey. Even when they completed that work, we had show and share experiences where we would say, “Okay, this team is going to present their work to the whole organization.” people get to own and be part of the path forward.

Was that a new way of working for the team?

Definitely, it was a unique way of working for the team. As I said, we’re not 1 or 2 stars, we’re a constellation at Make-A-Wish, and I really value the contributions of every team member. I think when you really give them the pen and say, “I actually want to know what you want to write down,” it inspires engagement and I see it every day and I feel fortunate to have a team that’s eager to be engaged in pursuit of our mission.

It sounds like you’ve done a lot of work to build the culture and the skill set of the team there. What does it look like to be a high-achieving employee at Make-A-Wish Canada? In case any of your colleagues of your team are reading, we’ll give them some real value here. Here’s what Meaghan thinks success looks like in our organization.

It’s a big organization, has lots of different departments. Everything we have three pillars in our strategic plan, Doug, called Raise Money, Grant Wishes, and Be Awesome. Raise Money is our whole fundraising team, Grant Wishes is our mission team, and Be Awesome is all of the strategic operations that make the whole rocket go.

Irrespective of which of those that you’re in, I think it’s someone who is committed to learn, committed to contribute, committed to grow. They’re people who are positive cultural influences at no matter what level you’re in, everyone is in a position to lead a positive culture. I think they’re people that they put their hand up to help us deliver the work. I think we have lots of different stars in the organization that do that in the various Raise Money, Grant Wishes, Be Awesome pillars.

Be Awesome is my favorite. That is very cool. Meaghan, as you’ve been CEO since 2022, what have you learned most about being a leader through this evolution and transformation of the organization?

I feel like I learn so much in this organization. When I joined Make-A-Wish, it was my first CEO role. I had a lot to learn. The more you learn, the more you realize you have to learn. I think that I still have a lot to learn. I am so blessed to have such a strong team. I’ve learned I don’t need to do it all. In fact, I’m not the best person to do it all. I think at the beginning, I felt coming in needing to go coast to coast, needing to understand it all myself, that was part of my own indoctrination to understanding the world of Make-A-Wish, figuring out my role as a CEO.

The more you learn, the more you realize you have to learn. Share on X

A lot of what I’m focused on now is building a sustainable organization that will be here 40 years from now, that will be granting wishes of every eligible child, and part of that is building the talent that can lead while I’m out doing what I need to do. I think probably learning how strong my team is and giving them the space to rise and lead has been a big learning for me, and I’m so grateful for the team I have that’s taught me that.

You have shared a bit of your journey as leader and as an organization in our conversation so far. What advice would you have for someone who is coming into their first CEO or Executive Director role here early in 2026?

The Power Of “I Don’t Know”: Leadership Advice For New CEOs

I think when you come into your first CEO role, you feel like you need to prove yourself. You feel like you need to know how to do it all. I think humility is the most important attribute of great leadership. As I said, the more experience I have the more I realize I don’t know, and I feel comfortable saying that now. I think a few years ago, I wouldn’t have said that. I remember standing in front of my board at a meeting and presenting a problem to them and saying, “I actually don’t know what the answer to this is.”

A few years ago, I never would have done that because I would have felt it made me look stupid. I actually think that humility, that understanding of creating space for others to contribute, you don’t actually have to know all of the answers. When you come into your first CEO job, go listen, go learn, and create space for others to help create that story with you.

What happened when you said, “I don’t know the answer”? Did they laugh and point and cheer?

No, not at all. No, they loved it. They were like, “Do you seriously not have the answer, Meaghan?” I said, “I seriously don’t have the answer. I need help of you. I need help of some of our other volunteers to figure this out.” I think it went very well. I was shocked and very happy. As I said, we invested in Dare to Lead training for all of our leaders in our organization, our directors and vps, and one of the tenets of Dare to Lead courageous leadership is around vulnerability and being comfortable with vulnerability.

That is putting you in a vulnerable space when you stand in front of a room and say, “I don’t know,” but as soon as you say, “I don’t know,” you create space for others to know and it just opens up the dialogue. The amount of incredible conversations I would say we’ve had at our organization since that training where it’s now safe to say, “I don’t know,” and it just creates such room for innovation and ideation and collaboration, it’s very powerful. Vulnerability, humility, hugely important in leadership.

 

Thank you so much for going into that. I think that is such a powerful message for leaders, new or old or wherever you are in your stage of leadership, wherever you are in an organization. The advice I got when I went from the lead fundraising role into a CEO role my first time was, “don’t try to make it okay.” Your board are not your donors.

Your job is not to make them feel well-stewarded. It is to support their role as stewards of the organization. I certainly did not take that lesson on board or wasn’t able to implement it in the first year, but slowly over time like “We don’t have the answer for this,” or, “This is a problem that we have that we’re trying to address.” What I learned, and I’m curious what your response is, that if you’re anyone who’s concerned about board engagement, have a thoughtful conversation about a problem where you don’t have the answer and you will see everybody leaning forward.

Absolutely. I think another great opportunity with boards, I remember this was not at this organization, was a previous organization, but it was one of those great moments of leadership where we put our little scorecard in front of the board of all the projects and of course everything’s green. One of the board members said, “If everything’s green, you’re not trying hard enough.” I agree. It should be that. You want transformation, you got to put things on the wall at the beginning of the year.

You’re not sure how you’re going to do them. They’re harder than it probably is going to be in twelve months, but it’s only because it’s going to help push you further in the mission. When you need help, that is when people will lean in and help. If you have everything under control all the time and you’re green across the board, the board’s like, “Don’t worry about it. You don’t need me.”

It tends to act as even though everything’s green it acts as a bit of a red flag for some like, “We got to find out what’s going to go on. This is impossible.”

“It’s too good to be true. It’s 2026, not everything’s green.”

Of course, even when things are going well, not everything’s green. There are those new problems. That comfort with having those conversations with your board and with your leadership team, I think does I certainly found it incredibly challenging out of the gate as a first-time CEO, but it does it does get better. It does get easier, especially when there’s successes that accompany. A good friend of mine used to say, “Our problems are nothing that success won’t fix.” just make it work.

It’s true. Gives you good wind at your back, that’s for sure. A few wins, it’s good.

As you’re moving forward with this next strategic plan, you’ve done these significant investments in team and in technology, what’s next?

We’re going to deliver the plan and the goal is really around reaching sustainability and making sure that we’re growing our fundraising towards that goal of reaching every eligible child. That grows from both growing fundraising and continuing to drive efficiency in the organization so that as money comes in, more wishes can be granted. I think that’s definitely the focus for the next three years.

What does sustainability mean to you?

Sustainability’s a word we use a lot in our organization. We are running a multi-year strategic plan right now that allows us to invest in the needs of now, utilizing cash we have on the balance sheet while we grow fundraising. That is allowing us to invest now with the expectation of realizing benefits in the future.

Defining Sustainability: Beyond Strategic Plans To The Next Wish

Sustainability is when we don’t need to go into cash on the balance sheet in order to balance the budget in any given year. I also think sustainability is us getting to a higher level of wish granting with the fundraising that supports it, with the team that has the stability to be able to do that, the leadership that’s in place, succession planning, organizational sustainability comes lots of different definitions.

 

The reason I ask, I know from our conversation and knowing about the organization that you had a good answer for that. I think that it’s something for leaders, whether you’re in the C-suite or wanting to be in the C-suite one day, to think about. That word sustainability can mean anything. The risk is that it means nothing. Having a really clear idea of what you mean by that when you’re using it with your team or with your board, with your donors, the specificity really matters there to build that credibility.

Yeah, there’s big words like strategy and innovation and sustainability that, you’re right, could mean ten different things, so you need to have a definition of what they mean here.

We came across an organization through our work here at The Discovery Group and one of the phrases that a board member wanted to put into their strategic plan or really thought needed to be put together in the strategic plan was strict cost containment and innovation. I thought that is not how people’s brains work.

That was the definition of what sustainability was to that particular director. “You sound like a lot of fun at parties.” it ultimately came from a good place, it was somebody trying to help and like, “How can we spend as little as possible and change as much as we need to in the face of increasing costs and a more challenging fundraising environment.” there was a good thought in there, but pairing those things and calling it sustainability really wasn’t going to work for the either the plan and certainly not for the organization. As we come to the end of our conversation, Meaghan, I get to ask my favorite question. What are you looking forward to?

Honestly, I’m looking forward to the next wish. The one after that because working with our teams across the country towards making sure we get to every eligible child, it really excites me. When I’ve seen the impact on children, I’ve seen the impact on families, I know our mission is real. I’m a firm believer that an organizational mission is not just for our work in the boardroom. If you’re going to write it on the wall, you darn well need to mean it. Everyone in our staff knows I feel that way because out there there’s children who are facing critical illness who we support. I’d love to tell you one other story.

An organizational mission isn’t just for artwork in the boardroom. If you’re going to write it on the wall, you darn well need to mean it. Share on X

I’d love to tell you about Wish Kid Matty because it’s stories like Matty that really help us understand why the next wish is the most exciting one. At just fourteen, Matty was a kid who loved hip-hop and sushi and video games, but above all, Matty loved baseball. Shortly after one of his baseball games, Matty’s family noticed something wasn’t quite right with him, and an MRI soon revealed that Matty had a brain tumor.

After a biopsy, Matty quickly slipped into a coma. This all happened in a very short period of time. While he was in a coma, he began chemotherapy and they began a treatment regimen that was for a group of illnesses so rare, there was only seven documented cases to guide his care. You can imagine how his family felt. You can imagine how his parents felt. It was during that unimaginable moment that Matty was referred for a wish.

His mother Tamara would talk to her unresponsive son about his wish, hoping that somehow, the promise of that future experience would reach Matty and contribute in some way, in any way, to his survival and ultimately his recovery. By the time Matty moved into remission, he had endured chemotherapy, surgeries, and radiation. He could no longer walk, he could no longer sit up, and he could no longer talk. He could certainly not play baseball. Matty’s wish was clear. As he began rehabilitation, he wanted to throw out the opening pitch at a Toronto Blue Jays game. He began a very long, painful experience of learning every basic movement.

One day, after weeks and months of grueling physiotherapy, the day arrived. As he walked across the field at Rogers Stadium, he raised his arms to the crowd, an action that seemed virtually impossible just months before. His mom Tamara, she tells this story, she remembers that moment with tears streaming down her face, not believing he had come so far to reach his wish, a wish that had been his North Star through his entire recovery with brain cancer, and then it happened.

It was incredible. As Matty reflects on it, he says this quote, “I was getting to live my dream, and it wasn’t about cancer or all of the complications I had gone through. In that moment, I was just Matty doing what I love.” Now, Matty is a volunteer. He shares his story to help other children find the spark of hope on their own medical journey because in his journey and in so many others, we know that one truth is clear, we know that wishes are medicine.

Meaghan, that is a wonderful story. Thank you so much for sharing that with me.

Thank you so much for having me here now, Doug.

 

Important Links

• Make-A-Wish Canada
• Meaghan Stovel McKnight on LinkedIn
• Transforming Crisis Into Growth With Katherine Hay, Former President & CEO, Kids Help Phone