Does making a wish come true do more than just that? An investigation into changes in quality of life and coping in children with a life threatening disease.

This project is aimed at investigating the effect of wish fulfillment of
children with a serious illness, by the Doe Een Wens Stichting, which is The
Make-A-Wish Foundation® of the Netherlands, affiliated to The Make-A-Wish
Foundation® International. This foundation receives requests from sick children
who would like to see their biggest wish become reality. Anecdotal evidence,
from children and parents, suggests that the effect of the wish fulfillment
goes beyond the particular event. Reactions from children and parents indicate
that it may have an effect on the general quality of life of the child, and the
course of the illness, that it may influence the way the family deals with the
illness, and may a have a long-term effect because of the strength of the
memories of the event.

The aim of the study is to assess the enduring effect of the wish fulfillment
on the quality of life of children and parents.

A group of parents will be interviewed.

Participation in the study may be considered as a burden since the subject
matter may potentially be upsetting. However, experiences of bereaved parents
have recently been studied and research has shown that while parents may find
talking about their child*s death upsetting, since the subject is naturally
upsetting, the interview experience in itself is not viewed as stressful;
rather parents evaluate the experience of participating in research as positive
and even useful (see protocol).