#26 - The Hope Episode: Wishes Are Medicine

In this conversation, Gillian Stovel Rivers speaks with Meaghan Stovel McKnight, CEO of Make-A-Wish® Canada, about the profound impact of wishes on children with critical illnesses and their families. They explore the science behind hope and resilience, the role of wishes as a form of medicine, and the ripple effect that wishes have on communities and healthcare workers. Meaghan shares personal stories and insights into how wishes not only uplift children but also provide essential support to families during challenging times. The discussion emphasizes the importance of community engagement, philanthropy, and the need for a more integrated approach to healthcare that includes emotional and psychosocial support.

Click here for details about how you can get involved and support our mission through partners, as it houses our ongoing national partner campaigns.

Both Make-A-Wish and The Flourish Feed Podcast would like to make a special shoutout about Rocky Mountain Chocolates who have partnered to create a special collection of five limited-edition chocolate bars with wrappers illustrated by wish kids themselves, inspired by their imagination, joy, and dreams. 100% of proceeds from this collection will be donated to Make-A-Wish Canada to help grant life-changing wishes for children living with critical illnesses across Canada.

You can experience these very special treats by placing your own order at Make-A-Wish® Canada Chocolate Bars x Rocky Mtn Chocolate – Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory here.

Takeaways
🕊️Hope is a force that shapes how we cope with adversity.
🧬Wishes provide measurable medical impact and improve mental health.
🕊️The journey of a wish is carefully curated to complement medical treatment.
🧬Wishes uplift not just the child but the entire family and community.
🕊️The ripple effect of a wish impacts healthcare workers positively.
🧬Wishes are essential to a child's treatment journey, not just a nice-to-have.
🕊️Community support is vital for the success of Make-A-Wish.
🧬Philanthropy plays a crucial role in funding healthcare and support programs.
🕊️Emotional wellbeing is as important as physical health in treatment.
🧬Engaging with charities can provide a sense of purpose and connection. 


Quotes
“Hope isn’t just an emotion - it’s a forward-moving force that shapes healing.”
“Wishes aren’t moments of joy. They’re carefully curated journeys that complement medical treatment.”
“When hope increases, cortisol decreases - and sleep, pain, and resilience improve.”
“Wishes stimulate endogenous opioids - real chemistry that reduces pain and anxiety.”
“A wish gives a child a positive future to focus on when everything else feels uncertain.”
“Hope is not a nice-to-have. It’s essential to coping, engagement, and recovery.”
“The goal isn’t just survival - it’s helping families flourish through adversity.”
“When systems are designed around hope, behavior and healing change.”

Chapters
00:00 The Power of Hope
02:14 Understanding Make-A-Wish Canada
02:52 Wishes as Medicine
06:26 The Ripple Effect of Wishes
10:32 Curating the Wish Journey
13:08 The Science of Emotional Wellbeing
17:01 Wishes Are Medicine Platform
20:52 Community Engagement and Corporate Partnerships
25:53 Lessons from Families Facing Adversity
29:09 Imagining a Better Healthcare System
33:36 The Essential Nature of Wishes

#flourish #wealth #wealthmanagement #investing #advisor #KnowThyWealthKnowThyself 

Connect with Gillian: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-stovel-rivers-ma-cfp%C2%AE-cea-997094124/?originalSub

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

The Flourish Feed Podcast, a series of curiosity-driven deep dives into the nature of flourishing through wealth. I'm your host, Jillian Stoville Rivers, M A C F P C E A, Senior Wealth Advisor at CIA Zante Wealth Management.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

And they found that children in the intervention group, kids who actually had wish, exhibited a general reduction in distress, depression, anxiety. They had improved quality of life, hope, and positive affect. And from this, from these psychological benefits, we see real health benefits. Hope and optimism have been shown to decrease cortisol levels. And if you decrease cortisol levels, you decrease stress and you improve sleep. They've also been shown to increase a child's production of endogenous opioids, which decreases pain and anxiety. These are physiologically real impacts of a wish.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Hope isn't just an emotion, it's a force that shapes how we live, cope, and connect when life gets hard. Tightly connected to our neurobiological capabilities as humans to focus on a goal, it's not only important to focus our attention, but it's also key to survival itself. Today I'm joined by Megan Stilville McKnight, CEO of Make a Wish Canada, to explore the science and heart behind wishes, why they matter, how they lift families, and what they teach us about resilience and flourishing. But first, let's get to know Megan a little bit. As Chief Executive Officer, Megan Stovil McKnight leads Make a Wish Canada in its mission to grant life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. She brings over two decades of mission-motivated leadership to her role at Make-A-Wish Canada and possesses an outstanding track record of building strong teams and delivering exceptional results in both the private and not-for-profit sectors. Megan shifted her career into the not-for-profit sector in 2012 because she profoundly believes that health is at the heart of everything and that the charitable sector is essential to the success of our health system in Canada. Through her work at hospital foundations, medical research charities, and at MegaWish Canada, she advocates that the health and healing that we desire for our families and our communities is dependent on the charitable sector. This is why Megan has dedicated her career to strengthening the health system through nonprofit leadership to ensure all Canadians have access to the care they need when they need it the most. Megan holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the DeGroot School of Business at McMaster University and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University. She is a certified fundraising executive, has been recognized as the top 40 under 40 by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, and was named one of Canada's top 100 most powerful women in 2024 by the Women's Executive Network. And for clarity, she is also my sister. Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. Megan Stilville McKnight. Welcome to the Flur Speed Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Hello, Jillian. Thank you for having me here.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Wonderful. So first off today, let's explore a bit about what a wish really is. So and starting with a simple question, maybe tell us a little bit about Make a Wish Canada and what you do.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Thanks so much for the question because I think a lot of people have heard about Make A Wish, but they might not actually know exactly what we do. Make a Wish Canada supports the health and wellness of children and families facing the devastation of childhood critical illness. And we do this through the play-based intervention of a wish. The harsh reality is that over 4,000 children are diagnosed with a critical illness every year, right here in Canada. That is one every two hours. And we support children with over a hundred different types of high-risk life-threatening conditions. So as a national children's health charity, we work alongside many other Canadian health organizations doing important work across the continuum of healthcare, from early intervention through acute treatment, like children's hospitals and psychosocial and long-term support organizations like ours. At Make a Wish Canada, we see every day what critically ill children need most during challenging times. And that is hope, strength, resilience, and wishes are a powerful way to deliver both.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

I love that you use this term play-based, because whenever I hear the word play, I feel myself like I'm brought back to a better, easier, simpler, more rejuvenating time in my life. Now, you guys recently launched a new campaign called Wishes or Medicine. Can you tell us a little bit about this idea that play can be medicine and that wishes can be medicine? How does hope play a role in the medicine of wishes?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Yeah, and I think it's so important. You said it brings it back to a simpler time. Things don't have to be complicated to be powerful. What many people don't realize is that wishes are not just a moment of joy. They're not a thing, they're not a trip. They are a carefully curated journey designed to complement each child's medical journey. And they actually do have measurable medical impact. A wish can be granted in as fast as 24 hours for a child that is palliative, or can take several years to complement their treatment journey if they're on a long-term journey, like with rare disease or cancer. With supportive outreaches or wish activities planned at the right time, research shows that when a wish prescribed alongside medical treatment, it can actually deliver physical benefits, it can improve mental health, it can improve their care journey. There was actually a randomized control trial done with 200 wish kids. They had 200 kids, and this make-a-wish affiliate actually only had funding to deliver 100 wishes that year. And all of these 200 kids had cancer. And so what they did is they did some psychological testing on these kids. They had them fill out surveys about how were they feeling at the beginning of that two-year period, one year in, when 100 of those kids had had their wish, and then another two years later. And they found that children in the intervention group, kids who actually had wish, exhibited a general reduction in distress, depression, anxiety. They had improved quality of life, hope, and positive affect. And from this, from these psychological benefits, we see real health benefits. Hope and optimism have been shown to decrease cortisol levels. And if you decrease cortisol levels, you decrease stress and you improve sleep. They've also been shown to increase a child's production of endogenous opioids, which decreases pain and anxiety. These are physiologically real impacts of a wish.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

And I mean, when we look at this from the flow side of things, which is the place that I come from, and the components of a wish as well that find their way into the five factors of flourishing, which is social connection, it's an emphasis on physical and mental health, it's this feeling of autonomy and agency and achievement and growth. The very nature of a positive goal to focus on, as opposed to allowing any other noise about their current situation in life into their frame, that has to have incredible benefits on the child, but also on the family. So I'm hoping you can describe for us what does hope look like in the families before they begin the wish journey? And then how does it evolve? Maybe through the lens of the child, but also through the lens of the family.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Yeah, you know, there's so much alignment between uh what you you talk about with flourishing, because uh Make a Wish International recently published the theory of change that actually describes the goal of Make a Wish is to help that child and their family flourish. Because when they arrive at us, families often arrive quite overwhelmed. The reality is that a diagnosis of critical illness changes everything in their world overnight. All of the hope, joy, the wonder of childhood, the dreams you had for your child, they're rapidly replaced by fear, by anxiety, by loneliness, by feeling like you're you're the only one in this situation. I was speaking to a wish mom last week who was telling me about the story of her son. And he was born three months premature and as such faced multiple critical illnesses right from birth. To understand the context of his condition, he spent more than 90% of his life in hospital. And how old is he? Three? He passed away at 14.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Oh my, 90% of his life in a hospital.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

And the reality is though, that when the wish mom talks about this, he said that wish offered a beacon of hope in this darkness. I mean, this is a child. This is not a child who sat sad all the time. He had desires, he had interests, he had personality, he had joy, he had family that would come and see him. He was part of a community, even in that hospital, right? This is a person. And his cousins would come and see his name as Jacob. His cousins would come and see him in the hospital and talk about uh the excitement of all the things outside the hospital. And so his wish, which was granted to him when he was seven, was that he wanted to ride a roller coaster. And uh he'd heard from his cousins during their visits how fun uh roller coasters were, and he wanted to experience that feeling. So his wish came, like I said, when he was seven. And first of all, preparing for that wish becomes the focus of his care team. It becomes this beacon that they're all leaning towards. So it's not the sadness of, you know, what's next and, you know, what is the next treatment or anything like that. It's bigger than that. It's about his joy, it's about his vision, right? So, first of all, we have to get him well enough to go. So that becomes the focus. And in this story, hope is not just a feeling, it's the forward-moving force for the child's journey. Now, given the complexity of his illness, travel would not have been possible without Make-A-Wish. Our program ensures that everything is prepared around that child, from organizing medical support in the flight if needed, a fully accessible, child-centered place to stay, and above all, out-of-country medical insurance, something he couldn't even qualify for without our program. And given the complexity of his illness, couldn't travel without it. So I do need to put a plug in for Blue Cross, who provides this insurance to all of our wish kids free of cost. This is an extraordinary life-changing gift for literally thousands of people every year. So Jacob went on his wish when he was seven and he experienced that wonder of travel.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

And he had that for the rest of his life, despite the fact that it was shorter than we wanted it to be. It anchored who he was and gave him something of a human experience to identify himself with. I mean, that has to be a big part of this too, is my identity is not just kid in hospital. My identity is kid who who who achieved, who had that level of achievement in their life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

His his his uh he got to week to just be a kid. And uh, you know, our research shows that 94% of parents saw improvements in emotional well-being after the wish. Jillian, in Jacob's case, he lived at home for four full months after the wish before he needed to be hospitalized again. That was the longest stretch he ever lived outside of the hospital in his entire life. And the memories of his wish, the pictures, the photos, the stories, they decorated his hospital room for the rest of his life. And today, you know, his mom reflects on Jacob's life and talks so positively about that experience that they never thought would be possible. Something that became this strength they held on to through her their entire journey together. So, you know, like a wish is so much more than a moment. It is something that literally transformed lives.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

And I like this word that you used where you talked about curating the journey. And yes, in some cases, you have to do it more on an emergency basis and it has to be fast. But in this case, everyone was rowing in the same direction and curating the journey so that he was well enough, so that he was prepared, so he could take the time away from his treatments. Can you tell us a little bit more about the curating of journeys and how many different professions are involved in that? Because it's not just the child and the family and you, but it sounds like it's the entire network of support around him.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Yeah, we call this the ripple effect of a wish. So while there is a child that sits at the middle of it, no child faces critical illness alone. So it's when they're in their illness, you know, whether it's siblings, parents, aunts, and uncles, nurses and doctors, child support support workers, they all talk about the power of the wish in bringing positivity to their life. Like you think about doctors who are, you know, they'll they'll meet a nurses and they're spending time with patients and they often don't have great news or they have to talk about different have difficult conversations. But in every time they meet that child, the wish becomes part of that story. Have you thought about your wish yet? Have you been referred for a wish yet? Did you go on your wish? Tell me about your wish. And it just changes the entire experience in the room. Doctors tell us it changes the entire tone in their relationship in that, in that moment, every time they meet the child, because the wish brings this positive force to every exchange. Uh, we estimate that almost 300 people are directly impacted by a wish. So that means while we grant about 2,000 a year, we're talking over 600,000 Canadians impacted every year by the life-changing power of a wish. It's pretty incredible. It's pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Yeah, and make a wish itself, your make a wish Canada, but make a wish itself is a global organization. So that multiplier effect isn't just true here, it's true in all of those other places. And I know you and I have both, for various reasons, we've spent time in direct contact with the healthcare system in Canada. Like we've been in the room, we've been on the journey with someone else. And I can't tell you how exciting it is to hear that the ripple effect affects our healthcare workers because that is a tough job. That is a slug. That is a 24-hour-a-day slug. And to have that actual connection to hope and goal on a secondary basis, because it's it's not them, it's the person they're taking care of. That is a remarkable impact you're having on the healthcare worker as well as the family and their children. It is. The question I wanted to ask next really takes us in the direction of the science a little bit, the science of emotional well-being. As you can appreciate, this is something I really, really care about on the flourishing side of things. But research suggests that it can improve joy, quality of life, and positive emotions for children and their families. But tell us a little bit more about the role that it plays in the healing itself. I know you intimated a bit earlier about the different chemical uh neurochemicals, and you use the word opioids, but there was a word before that that makes it sound.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

They come from your body, they don't come from outside.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Yes. So we we're basically saying, I guess, is what I hear you say is that we're stimulating healing chemistry in the body of the child. Is there anything more you want to tell us about that? Because I think that's what flourishing does for non-critically ill people, is we're stimulating positive neurochemistry through certain aspects of our day that we want to integrate. Can you tell us any more about stimulating the healing of the child? Again, the four-month example with Jacob is remarkable. Do you have anything, any other ideas?

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Uh, we hear stories about this all the time. And I think this is why at the beginning, when you asked me, can you tell us a little bit about make-a-wish? Is I feel like almost everyone's heard about the brand of Make-A-Wish. They know they kind of know what we do, but they don't really know what we do. And so over the last couple of years, we've really been trying to find a way to really get people to understand the life-changing impact of a wish. And it's why we put a lot of work into research, speaking to a lot of our wish families, doctors, nurses, to get to a way that we could articulate it in a way people could understand. And so we recently launched a new brand platform called Wishes Our Medicine. Because we've always known that wishes change lives. But through our Wishes Our Medicine platform, we're trying to show the world that wishes actually improve health outcomes. It's not just a nice to have, it's a need to have. And this is backed by research, it's rooted in real stories. This platform is aiming to reframe wish granting as a vital part of a child's treatment journey because hope is hope is a driver of coping, of engagement, of readiness for medical care. And we see this in the research. For example, 95% of the clinicians that we, that we um spoke to believe that wishes improve health outcomes. 100% say it improves the quality of life and becomes a turning point in their treatment. 90% of medical providers said that the wish increases compliance with treatment. You think about all these kids who are who don't want to go to the hospital anymore. They don't want another poke, they don't want another surgery. But you know, I'll I'll speak to wish kids and and and they'll tell me I only have, you know, I only have three more pokes until I get to meet Elsa, right? So it's it's reframing it in a play-based way that the child can understand, the child can connect with, and then and then be part of that. I've got a quote I want to share with you on this about a wish dad who spoke to the power of this. I'm just gonna read it. So this is actually by a wish dad, and he said the medical challenging challenges at times were just overwhelming and so daunting. But the social and mental health implications of an illness can have devastating effects as well and can persist even if the health challenges are addressed. The only real medicine to address those dark times was hope. Hope comes from an aggregation of small wins. It comes from seeing you are not alone and being able to visualize into the future. Make a wish was medicine for the soul. This quote from a real wish dad, supported by research, and our new platform reminds us that hope is hope and joy, they're not superficial, they're not throwaway words, they're therapeutic. Everything leading up to the wish, the experience of that carefully curated journey I spoke to, all of these things, they build resilience, they help a child on their health journey, wishes improve health outcomes, wishes are medicine.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Traditional wealth management focuses on a few key moments. Your first house, sending your kids to university, when you retire, and when you die. Will you have enough? Will you die with too much or too little? These are questions of a very finite nature. Our approach goes above and beyond, with the belief that wealth is not just money, but comes in at least four forms: time, money, energy, and attention. And that wealth is a wave that you can learn to ride to a life well lived, a life where you flourished, where you surpassed the finite game of having enough, to experiencing the infinite game of playing forever. Instead of just focusing on a few of life's moments, we focus on all of the moments between the 1440 minutes of each day, the energy to be harnessed from each and every sunrise, every meal, and every great night's sleep. The power of connection and meaning that all four forms of wealth, time, energy, money, and attention can access. This is what it means to flourish. So the question is, which wealth advisor is right for you? An advisor who helps you open the door to a few of life's moments or to all of them? Consider this. In the next 24 hours, you have 1,440 minutes, and it takes just a few of them to contact me at grivers at asante.com. Doing so could be one of the best investment decisions you ever make. We have this other question later on that talks about the nature and the current state of the charitable sector in Canada and that maybe there's not enough participation there, whether it's monetary participation or people participation. Is this platform something that could engage the work of many, like literally the volunteer to try and be part of the journey? Tell me more about the platform and what's the long-term vision for this platform. Could it really create a movement of participating in wishes in a way that aligns humans to take care of little people and get better themselves?

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Well, I mean, certainly, Shillian, that is our hope. That's why we've we wanted to make sure that we could articulate what we do and why it's so essential. We know that when someone's sick, they need medicine. We don't doubt that. We, whether it is uh naturopathic medicine, whether it is Eastern medicine, Western medicine, it doesn't matter what you prescribe to. It is uh you when someone is sick, they need medicine. And we know that wishes are medicine and are vital to that child's journey. And so uh this wishes or medicine is a it's intended to be a call to action. We need people to help us make wishes come true. Make a wish receives no government funding. So that means that every wish we grant comes from the generous support of community members, of corporations, of individuals who choose to participate with us. We have over 1,200 volunteers from coast to coast that help us make wishes come true. Because what's unique about our medicine uh is that you don't go, you don't have to go to the hospital for it. It comes to you. Because that ripple effect I talked about, that uh that group of people who were impacted by an illness, they are uh in first-grade classrooms, they are in gymnasiums, they're in community centers, they are where you live. Because, like I said earlier, no child faces critical illness alone. If a child in your community is sick, everyone wants to help. And so at Make a Wish, there's a way you can. I remember, I'm just gonna tell you this little story. I remember being in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for a wish reveal for this little girl, Molly, and she had endured acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and she was diagnosed during the pandemic. And I always find when I talk to these parents that I think about these families who were facing a critical illness diagnosis during the pandemic when we were afraid to go to the grocery store, how much courage it would have taken to persevere through the uncertainty of critical illness at that time. And so uh Molly was diagnosed, and her mom called the school and said, we need to keep Molly's education on track while she goes through two years of treatment. Uh, and she spoke to the principal and they worked through how to do that. And then uh I was at the school for a wish reveal. So this is on that journey. One of the steps is we go and we surprise the wish child somewhere in their community to tell them their wish was coming true. And so we were at the school and we had the cupcakes and the balloons and the blue make-a-wish t-shirts, and we invited her little best friend Lucy down to help us grant the wish. So she's carrying the balloons. And the principal comes out and says, Can I come? And we were like, Yes, of course. She said, I was just here when Molly's mom called two years ago. And I've been part of this journey with her every step of the way, and I want to see when it gets better. And so she came with us, and we were in the first grade classroom, and in front of all of her peers in her gray one classroom, we told her a wish was coming true. And my goodness, there were tears. There was Mickey ears, it was beautiful. But this, this uh, it's it's intended to be a rallying cry because when that child was sick, everyone in her first grade class. Just think about these little kids. They they shouldn't have to face the reality that their peer might pass away, right? Like that is awful. And they don't know what to do with that. Yeah. They don't know what these are huge emotions. This is trauma. And so we are able to bring them part of that journey when she is well again and she will now go on her journey that was the light at the end of the tunnel for her.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

That is so cool. And the number of people, when you think of it in the context of a child, the number of people that a child comes in contact with in their day, you know, you have kids and I have kids. If they are hopefully somewhat of experiencing some kind of normalcy, they have a classroom, they maybe have sports teams they're involved with. They have they have a huge network. And as soon as they're known as the kid who has X, whatever the X is, the disability or the cancer or the life health challenge, that's what they're known by. And then people have to do something with that feeling. And you've also given that community a positive thing to do with that feeling by getting behind their journey from the wish forward. That's remarkable. Now I want to talk, this is again going off script a little bit, but we did a thing with you at Christmas time where we engaged the Make a Wish program that was a collab with Rocky Mountain Chocolate. And I have to tell you, the number of people that wrote me afterwards and said, next year you have to send branded tissue. Like they wanted packets of tissue, make a wish slash flourish family wealth branded tissue, because what a totally beautiful partnership that was. So just in case anybody out there wants to know about it, could you tell us a little bit about the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Collaboration? And then I want to know how we can promote other collaborations. Where do we find out about these collaborations? Because sometimes that's another way people can get involved with you and follow your work.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Absolutely. So Rocky Mountain, wonderful Canadian organization. And actually, their founder and CEO sits on our national board, Tammy. She's amazing. And when she joined our board, this is the first thing she wanted to do. She says, I want to do something with you guys. I want to be, I want to bring in my organization. And what's really powerful about corporate partnerships with Make a Wish is that it's it's first of all, it's a cause everyone can get behind. No one believes that a child should be ill, and no one believes that a child should face critical illness alone. So naturally, employees get involved. Naturally, customers are interested. And so we created this co-branding of a chocolate bar. And it was actually, we went out to a group of wish kids and said, if you were to design a chocolate bar, what would you design it to be? And they created artwork for us, they created crazy flavors, and then Rocky Mountain Chocolate created five custom chocolate bars inspired by five actual wish kids. And so in promoting each of these wishes, each of these candy bars, uh, we actually were able to talk about the life-changing impact of a wish for that child and what inspired this flavored bar. And they were sold across Canada and all the stores of Rocky Mountain Chocolate with all proceeds, 100% of proceeds going to make a wish, which is extraordinary. So huge shout out to Rocky Mountain Chocolate. And so this is, I would say we're actually a unique charity in that corporate giving is a huge part of our partnership because there's there's so much you can do with your employees and customers getting involved. So we have incredible employee engagement programs, whether it is through CRM activations like that, cause related marketing, or whether it is bringing your employees in to do wish reveals or to help us build wish boxes. We have a program called Wish Team Challenge where we do a team building exercise where everybody in the group actually uh gets to be a wish coordinator for an hour, an hour and a half and design a wish. And we've done that for groups of 20. We've done it for up to 500. So there's so many ways that companies can get involved to do things that are really meaningful for their employees and their clients and their customers, uh, while also those dollars that they're paying for that helping fund life-changing wishes, which connects everyone in that organization to a real powerful ripple effect. Right. Another ripple effect.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Yeah, another ripple effect. Do you have any other collaborations coming up that you can give us a little bit of a sneak peek at, or can we share that later on, maybe throughout the year? Is that something we could drop into our FLIRS feed?

SPEAKER_00 25:56

I would love to share that with you. I mean, we have incredible corporate partnerships. I talked about Blue Cross earlier. WestJet is an extraordinary partner. Uh, they fund over two and a half million dollars a year of flights for us. And we have other cause-related marketing partnerships uh launching all the time, things with P2PIT, kernels, you name it. So I'd love to share that with you. You can also check out makeawish.ca where we include a lot of that information or follow us on social media and we promote all those collabs as well through social media.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

Amazing. Okay, I will put all those handles and details into the show notes so people can follow along. Now I want to talk a little bit about what we can, what we, the audience, how we can take this ripple effect into our day when we what can broader people, like the the world, what what can we learn from the way these children and families mobilize hope, especially in the face of adversity? Like what when you look at what you do for a living and you see how these families are handling things with the tool that they're given called the wish, and then you pivot back and you look into your life and you look into what we deal with as parents and as children and and and taking care of our families. What do you what's the takeaway for how we deal with adversity? What do you get inspired by?

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Oh, that's a big question. You know, when I think about the um the ways, first of all, the wish affected the family. Like I said, the wish uplifts the entire family and the community because illness affects everyone. So, you know, for sure, there's support for parents and communities. You know, I hear from wish parents all the time that uh that as much as everyone around them offers to help, no one knows what it's like to care for a critically ill child than other parents with critically ill children. It's actually one of the inspirations behind our group wish trips. So we started actually doing group wish experiences. So families could connect with other families who had similar lived experience, which I think is very inspiring. And, you know, we have examples where families who are from different parts of the country were on the same group wish trip and they go home and now they're friends for lifetime because they have this connection. The kids connect because they have had similar lived experience. So the other the thing that I think people don't talk about often enough is the impact of critical illness on siblings. They're often overlooked in treatment and it's not, it's not intentional. It's just because it has to be. You know, there's um they live in constant uncertainty and fear. It's scary. Like I talked about earlier about how all the kids in that grade one classroom are worried about their friend. Well, what about your sibling who is very, very ill? I remember one wish parent telling me about how they only had pictures of the younger sibling in the hospital for the first two years of life. So that that family's life experiences didn't ever exist outside the hospital. And another one whose older sibling would have panic attacks every time the younger brother went to the hospital because she was scared he was going to die. Like these emotions are real and they're harming. Life changes overnight. The routines disappear. Oftentimes, you know, a parent has to leave their job because they have to care for that child, which leaves the other parent caring for the other children and trying to keep, you know, food on the table and a roof overhead, right? So like there's not a lot of room for nice to haves either in this. It's a, these kids have to grow up fast, right? So this is why part of our philosophy at Make a Wish is we include the whole family. It's it's the wish isn't just for that child. So whether it's um in that journey, we have moments where the siblings come along and they participate in it. Our goal is to, you know, to reconnect that family, have that bonding, that renewed sense of togetherness, and try to build some joyful moments to replace the trauma that they've been through together.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

So this brings me to my next question, which is going to be a revisit on the charitable sector question, but it's also a revisit on your experience as a healthcare sector charitable person. If you could imagine, like I wave a magic wand and you get to describe some of the attributes of the perfect healthcare system so that the family and the sibling are supported. And it wasn't all on make-a-wish, what would be there? And and then the same thing as it relates to the charitable sector. Oh, I wave a magic wand because I'm a make-a-wish friend. I have one at home that you gave me at some event. So I wave a magic wand and I'm able to make a change to the way that charity is functioning in Canada. Let's start with the healthcare sector first. If you have any knowing what you know, what should be there for parents and the siblings of these. I mean, obviously the healthcare is there for the child, but maybe there's other pieces that could be there for the families.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Yeah, there's there's just so much demand in the Canadian healthcare system, which is what's what's part of my philosophy in my career is that I've learned that the the healthcare we need, like the core, and I'm gonna say small end need because it's not even a big end need, the basics are provided through the healthcare system, through our tax dollars. So we are very fortunate to have that in Canada. It is it is by no means perfect, but it is better than a lot of places in the world. So let's start with that. But the the healthcare we aspire for our families, uh the pieces that have the best equipment, the next generation treatments, the new facilities, all of the whole person care programs that we care for for our families are not provided by the system. And that is actually where the charitable sector comes in. It's where foundations fund a lot of that. It does not come from the government. Uh, you want to see equipment in your new hospital, it's coming from the foundation. You want to see an expanded hospital, 80% of that funding is coming from the community, right? Like a huge or 10%, 10 to 20% of that money is coming from the community. It can't happen without philanthropy. Uh, and a lot of people, I don't think they realize it's not the nice to have, it's the need to have. But what we offer is what's called a psychosocial support program. So it is something that it sees a person for more than their cells, right? So totally.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

And it sees a person for more than their illness because what you've talked about today's, and I think this is kind of like the clincher, is this is a medicine that is based on forward movement. It's based on seeing ahead, it's based on proactive health care, if you will, as opposed to just whatever limb is falling off, which is kind of what I sometimes feel like the healthcare system is built around. It's it's built for field care, you know, like large-scale plague field care. It's not built for proactive care.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

But I would tell you the people who work in the healthcare system would want it to be more. Totally, they do. There's just there's just sufficient, there's just not enough resources. It's uh um, it's it's um there's just not enough resources, uh, which leaves the charitable sector to actually fill in a lot of these places. And you even see in some of the some some psychosocial support programs that, especially available for adults, are funded through um philanthropy in hospitals. Um but this program here actually sits outside the hospital, but um, but is I would say fully connected into the healthcare system. Uh, I'm gonna look at I'm gonna look at kids with cancer in Canada. Uh, last year, on any given year, about 1,400 kids are diagnosed with cancer in Canada. And about at my make a wish, about 47% of our wish kids face a cancer diagnosis. So we treat a lot of kids who have cancer. And last year, out of that 1,400, about 875 of them were referred to us. That's 62% of children diagnosed with cancer as part of their care journey were referred to make a wish. And that's almost the same as kids who get chemotherapy as part of their treatment. So, like make a wish is part of the standard of care. It's just not funded by the government. It's funded by the community, it's funded by corporations, it's funded by child bar campaigns. Thank you to you and our friends at Rocky and Rocky. But uh, but that is the that's the that there is um that connection that we have to support that. I would say the healthcare system I would want us to have is to make sure that everyone who needs that kind of support gets it. It's not just 62%, but actually it's 100% because we are so much more than ourselves. We know that. We live it every day. And programs like Make a Wish see that, support that, value that, honor that. And that's why we have the impact we do on kids and families.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Remarkable. All right. Before my closing question, which I ask of every podcast guest, I have a closing question about make a wish. So when you imagine people hear this episode, they go in with on with the rest of their day, they go on with their lives. What do you want them to remember when they think of the mission at Make a Wish Canada? What's the most important lesson you want people to take away? There's so much we've said here. Can you bring it down to a thought or two?

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Uh well, the first one is that uh wishes are not a nice to have. They're not just kids standing in front of the Disney castle or sitting there with their new iPad computer. Those are those are just flashcard moments. The story of that child, the story of their need begins long before. And the wish is a vital part of that child's treatment journey. We exist because we want to ensure that every child is seen as more than their cells. They're seen for all the hope and wonder, joy, connection, resilience they need to persevere through those toughest times. And um my message I would say to your listeners is that so often when a child is sick, we feel helpless. We feel there's nothing we can do. I know when my kids are sick, I wish I could just take that pain. And I'm sure you feel the same for yours, right? Well, at Make a Wish, there is something everyone can do to help. And uh with 4,000 children being diagnosed with critical illness this year, we need everyone to do something. And um we know that giving is down in Canada. Less people, less Canadians are giving to charities now than they were five years ago. And that's not great. The reality is economic kidwinds are out there, it's hard. We get that. Um, don't not give. Just give less if you can't, but stay connected because that relationship you can have with a charity also benefits you. You know, that that connection to meaning, that connection to purpose, seeing, you know, that small gift that you're making and the extraordinary impact it can have on others, that heals you to you become part of that ripple effect. And I encourage all Canadians to include philanthropy in some way in their story. Helping others helps you tenfold. I hear that from donors all the time, is that they get so much more than they give. And so I would say that wishes are not a nice to have, they're essential. And I encourage every listener to find a charity they care about and get involved in some way, it will it will make us a stronger Canada.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

I love it. And I think the other thing that that is worth bringing just into this summary of the conversation is that purpose is really important, not just for the child and their family and the sibling, but it's also important for this donor base we're talking about. So if your wishes are medicine platform can engage people to offer up their time, right? Because that's what retired people tend to have some of, and all of a sudden their purpose piece has dropped away. Gosh, I can't wait to be telling that story with you. So thank you very much for sharing all of this with us. Now, my final question, and it it's all about you, this one. And it's called the moment of bliss question. When you look at your 1,440 minutes of every single day, there's gotta be one or two that you seek out. I actually think I might know what it is, but you that you seek out that you call the Meg and Stilva McKnight moment of bliss. What is it? It's the thing that gives you that like the knowledge that the world is a good place, that your heart is calm and soft and singing. Meg and Stilven McKnight, tell us about your moment of bliss.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

My moment of bliss, I get excited about it every night before I go to bed. I say to my husband, I was like, Do you know what I'm excited for? And he's like, coffee. And I'm like, Yes, it's coffee. It's uh first thing in the morning. You know, I started um when I was uh earlier in my career, my kids were younger. I started waking up when my kids woke up. And so it was like, go, go, go immediately. And then I read this article saying, wake up 30 minutes earlier for your moment of bliss, basically, right? And so I started setting my alarm 30 minutes earlier, and I have coffee. My husband and I have coffee every morning. It's quiet, there's calm, you have a moment to just breathe and wake up, enjoy that coffee. And I would say, be excited about the and hopeful for the opportunity that's ahead for the day. Beautiful, beautiful. I love coffee in the morning. Every morning.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

I love it. And I'm not, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna say it must have been something in the water on the street that we grew up with because I literally go to bed every night and I say, I'm so excited for coffee in the morning. And you and I haven't really ever had this chat before specifically, but I guess we have a thing for coffee in the morning.

unknown 37:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

Marvelous.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Well, thank you so much for showing us that hope is not just an idea. It's actually rooted in our capacity for survival as human beings, not just the child, but the network around the child. Wishes or medicine. Meg at Stolvin McKnight, thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you have the most amazing day.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Thank you. You too. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Join me next week on the Flourish Feed Podcast to keep exploring the infinite game. In the meantime, remember to stay curious, turn your passions into purpose, and play hard. I'm rooting for you. This program was prepared by Gillian Stovell Rivers, who was a senior wealth advisor with CI Asante Wealth Management. This is not an official program of CI Asante Wealth Management, and the statements and opinions expressed during this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of CI Asante Wealth Management. This show is intended for general information only and may not apply to all listeners or investors. Please obtain professional financial advice or contact Gillian to discuss your particular circumstances prior to acting on the information presented.