Where Wishes Begin | The Story Behind The Genie's Wish

Welcome to the very first episode of The Wish Report, the official podcast from The Genie's Wish.

Meet founders Katie Jones and Martin Neal as they share the remarkable story behind the charity, from launching during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic to becoming a lifeline for children, young adults, and families across England and Wales.

Discover why The Genie's Wish is different, supporting people from birth to the age of 40 who are living with critical, serious, or life-limiting conditions, as well as young carers aged 5–18. Learn how every wish is personally designed to create lasting memories, strengthen families, and bring moments of joy when they are needed most.

Whether you're looking to support a charity, nominate someone for a wish, or simply hear inspiring real-life stories of hope and kindness, this episode is the perfect introduction to The Genie's Wish and its mission to make every moment count.

Just £1 a month can make a real difference. Join The Genie's Wish 'Power of the Pound' campaign and help bring hope, joy, and unforgettable memories to people who need them most.

Visit https://www.genieswish.co.uk/ to find out more.

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Contact us at info@genieswish.co.uk

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Transcript

Welcome to the very first edition of The Wish Report, the official newsletter podcast from The Genie’s Wish. Every quarter, we'll take you behind the scenes of the charity, sharing the stories of incredible wishes, the people whose lives have been touched and the supporters, volunteers and partners who make it all happen. In this episode, we're joined by Katie Jones and Martin Neal, the founders of The Genie’s Wish. Welcome both. 

Hello. 

Hiya. 

First of all, take us back to the beginning. Where does the story of The Genie’s Wish really start? The Genie’s Wish was born because Martin and I had worked together for about six years at another charity. And Martin was my manager, and we just instantly aligned in how we work together. We had the same passion and drive for the charity. The charity that we were working at, supported people from two to twenty-one at the time with serious illness, and we met quite a few people that were older than twenty-one, and within most families we met young carers. So it felt like a real shame that we couldn't support them as well. So, during our time of working together and going through many different scenarios and fundraising, we always talked about the idea of opening our own charity and extending the opportunities for people to apply for wishes or dreams. Then, when the wonderful period of lockdown happened during Covid, Martin and I were both made redundant. And it was then let's really talk about this idea of opening our own charity and with a lot of encouragement from a lot of our supporters who we'd built relationships with over the years and really loved what we were doing. They guided us to do that. After many, many calls, sometimes late at night trying to discuss names and how do we do this? What do we need? Martin and I decided to open The Genie’s Wish open January 2021 on the 6th. So we're just over five years now and it's incredible. The journey wasn't over. We loved what we were doing and we just thought there was so much more we could do. Martin, was there a single moment when you realised this needed to become more than just an idea? We started to discuss it probably in the August September of 2020 after we'd been made redundant. And like Katie said, we knew a hell of a lot of people that would follow us over once we'd come up with the idea and concept of The Genie’s Wish. I was at the charity probably five or six years before Katie had joined, and even from that point, we knew within the charity that there were tons of people that wasn't going to get a dream because they were over the age of twenty-one. And when Katie joined us, we then started to keep in contact with them, people that maybe applied, but we couldn't help and realised that there wasn't really any other charity in the UK helping people over the age of twenty-one, specifically with a dream or wish. Then when we came up with the concept of helping people from birth all the way up to forty, there's no one else doing that in the UK. And then having another concept of helping young carers from five- to eighteen-year-olds, that we can give a group trip day out or an individual wish to, was yet another benefit of us starting The Genie’s Wish. So it was a bit of a no brainer all the way around, really, of the concept and how we've evolved up until this point. And we're constantly looking at different ideas on how we can help. It was born out of an idea, and then it's grown ever since. Yeah. Martin. I were encouraged by a lot of our supporters because they'd worked with us, and for us, it was always about personalising the journey, both the beneficiary and the donor. That was really important for us to show the impact and work really closely with people and then relationships built. And that was why we had loyalty in these people. Everyone always used to say to us, you two are the right people in the right job. You need to carry this on. You can't let this go. Martin and I did give blood, sweat and tears throughout our time at the other charity. We still do now. We align all the time on the same sort of thoughts for it. So to give that up during Covid was not a possibility. It was like, we need to carry on now and just do more. And it's probably one of the best decisions we've ever made. It was a lot of effort. We had to get other jobs to build it originally and then gradually go in full time. But we're both now full time and no looking back before there was a charity, what was happening in your lives that led you here? I started working in the charity sector at thirty. I worked for Mencap and I just instantly loved the work, working with people with different disabilities, working in a fundraising team and coming up with new ideas. It just was something I had to do. Some people come to me and say, have you opened this charity because you've lost a child? Because quite a few local charities start through loss? And I said, no, mine is because I'm in a position to be able to help. And actually, I absolutely love what we do and the charity gives me so much back as well. I've got high empathy, I've got huge passion, I'm excitable and the charity is so rewarding in so many ways. Once you start getting involved, you can't leave. And I had so many experiences at the other charity I met Martin, he got me onto tracks, he got us into so many different things. I didn't want to give it up, so we didn't. And here we are. 

From my point of view, it was through a friend of mine lost a daughter while I was working at HSBC Bank as a bank manager that I started the fundraiser probably back in two thousand and five. We had fifteen hundred two thousand people in one building, and I just thought we could do a lot of fundraising without much effort. When you got two thousand people meeting at a coffee machine every day, you can start talking to people about doing events. And it just grew from doing skydives to taking trips on to whitewater rafting in the Grand Canyon, Australia trips, or doing marathons worldwide. I suppose I'd never done any events before, and I got in the realms of actually, I'm going around the world fundraising for a charity, helping others all by seeing the world and doing events. They then asked me to become a trustee, which I did do and done that for about five years. And then I joined them at the end of two thousand and eight, looking after their corporates because they didn't really have anyone. So that's how I got involved with charity. It was just by coincidence, to be honest. Did either of you have any idea how big this might become? No. I did have in the back of my mind that it was a new concept in the UK, so I thought it would be an easier process to get funds through the door and help more people, because if there's no one else doing it, and specifically young carers, we'd get more support fairly easier than maybe other charities if we just went down the route of helping two- to twenty-one-year-olds, or helping up to sixteen-year-olds like other charities do. What actually makes us different in the charity sector? Probably not a lot at that point, but going from birth to forty and young carers, that sets us aside from all the other charities that really helped us with the concept. And really thank God, from my point of view and Katie's point of view, that we took that decision. Yeah, we wouldn't have been here today without the people supporting us in the background that gave us the funds to start up. A lot of the challenges along the way, there's been some absolute eye openers of opening a charity. Things like the website. I thought it was going to be really easy, but everything takes time and everything has to be thought about. And there's only two of us running this across. There was at the time across England and Wales. And then we had Wendy, who was part time doing the wishes. So, I take on items like the marketing, which I'd never done before. Martin was doing the finance, which he did. I've since taken on other areas of the charity as a team of two with the same strategy based on a team of fifteen. We went big, but I'm really glad to say we're here. Five years on, I think there's been some challenges and it'll always be a worry every year, especially in the current market that we're in. We opened during COVID, which obviously was a tricky time, but in some respects, it was a good time to open because people were restarting. Martin and I didn't really focus just on trusts and foundations, which was an absolutely saturated part of fundraising in our charity sector. And it still is to this day because events weren't happening. But we have got quite a bit of experience as all-rounders, and that's really helped us in our fundraising strategy. Yeah, I still have to pinch myself that we're five years on, really nearly five and a half years on. Yeah. It's mad. It's absolutely madness. And it's flown by. It's gone so quick. For anyone discovering the genius wish for the first time who is eligible to receive a wish? We support people from birth to forty across England and Wales with a serious illness or a life limiting condition. They can't have had a wish within five years anywhere else, and they can apply via an application on our website. And then we go one step further by supporting young carers. There are unsung heroes. Statistically, there's about a million young carers in the UK and half of them aren't identified, but they can apply within five to eighteen. Not to have a wish anywhere else, but I don't think they can because we're the only charity that offer that. But anyone that applies, it's through word of mouth. A lot of referrals. We have a lot of applicants through social media. A lot of our families actually know each other. If you have a condition, you're mixed with a lot of families, particularly heart conditions or cancers. You meet people and then they refer. So, it's been really nice helping younger adults that have met other young adults and then offered them the chance to apply. But as long as they fit that criteria, pretty much we say yes. How does a family first come to hear about The Genie’s Wish? Through many different avenues. Realistically, of course, like any other business people, Google us or Google to get a wish and we would come up to the top of the listings on the SEO. It can be word of mouth through a hospice doctor's surgery company. Anyone we have had dealings with that know us has done a track for us through our networking, through anyone we meet, families or our beneficiaries that had a wish would then speak about it and their experience and just the circles they come across in their day-to-day life through a hospital visit or in a hospice, or meet. Another family member or friend would talk about it. And where I do a lot of networking, I speak to someone for the first time. I've never met them before and they said, yeah, we know about The Genie’s Wish. And then you ask them where and they say through a family friend, word gets around. So, it's in any direction. People can get hold of us, but mainly through people looking at the website and talking to each other. We live and breathe this. So, wherever we go and people say, oh, what do you do? We then instantly into Genie's mode, we'll talk about the charity and it's everywhere you go. Not that we want to escape it, but you just cannot. It comes up and then you're talking about somebody who knows somebody who's got a condition, and then you're offering a wish in the middle of an event. It's constant. You're never shy of meeting anyone that knows somebody. Unfortunately, that's going through a bad time. What happens after that first inquiry? The application goes through, and then our lovely wish coordinator, Vic, will read through the application, check that it meets our criteria, and then she'll contact that person or their parent guardian and do a Teams call. Because we think it's really important that we speak face to face and get to know somebody, because somebody could ask for a wish and ask for. We've had it for a Spotify subscription, which if you look at the value of that, it's like £99 for a year. So, after a phone call, you get to find out actually that this person likes shopping or particular brands that wish in particular turned into a shopping spree with mum for the weekend and then the Spotify subscription for three years so that it wasn't just a year. Having these face-to-face conversations is really important to understand why they want the wish, what it's about, how can we enhance it? For us, we always want to enhance what people ask for and make the experience as magical as we can. So that's what happens. And then Vic will say to them, after that call, you've been accepted. You join a waiting list, which we do try and keep within a certain time. We don't want people to be waiting for too long, or it might be matched with an event that we're doing. It really depends. But she'll keep in contact and that's their person. Throughout the whole journey. All our wishes are bespoke to the individual beneficiary, so we don't supply them a list. It's literally their ideas. And that's the whole benefit of us starting the journeys, which we didn't want to go with them. As a larger corporate charity, we want to make it bespoke to them. And like Katie said, we always add on and make the wish even better, exceeding their expectations of what they think they're going to get. Yeah, that's fundamental for us to do every time. It's not always just about the individual. We try and look at the three sixty of their story, because we help young carers as well, and there are siblings that aren't young carers, but there's also mum and dad. So, if someone asks for Merlin parcels, for example, we will cover the whole family. Or if they want to go for a UK holiday, we'll look at how we can get everybody included into that experience. Or if a young person wants to go to London, do you want to bring a friend? It's encouraging them to not be on their own in that experience and covering the funds for everything where we can, of course, but it's about looking at their whole story, and I think that's the part of getting to know our beneficiaries. It's really important for us to understand what their needs are and us trying to just create something really great for them during a really horrible time. We get to do the good part. Let's talk about the reason we're here, the wishes. It's been another busy few months for The Genie’s Wish, so let's find out some of the incredible wishes you've been able to grant recently. Looking back over the last few months, is there one wish that immediately comes to mind? We've done over two hundred individual wishes, ones that stand out for me. One is Evie. She is sixteen and she's had a type of cancer. She is in remission now, but if you survive cancer, you still have to go through quite a lot of mental health conditions, different neuropathy issues with your body and different things that happen. And for a young lady, particularly hair loss growing like that, and her wish was to be a princess on her prom day. And as we know, these dresses are very expensive. And so we did the whole shebang. We got her a dress made and fitted. She had her hair done. She absolutely loved the designer brand coach. So, we bought her a surprise coach bag. Vic, our wish coordinator, turned up with flowers. We had a photographer. We offered for a friend to have all of these things with her. She had her nails done. But when we put these wishes out on LinkedIn, it's really amazing what support we have. That was new to us. Offered his Rolls Royce to take her in style. Everyone gets involved and then sort of wishes because there's so many parts to it. The thank you from mum. She wrote such a long thank you. You've made my daughter's year. It's all she's ever wanted, just to feel amazing for that day. And she's had such a tough time of treatment. It was just everything she could have wished for. And she looks stunning. That one happened in June. And then I think from a young carers point of view, our youngest young carer we've supported is six. And people might think, well, how is a six-year-old a young carer? That's madness. It's a real natural movement in families. If you could imagine in your own family, if someone became ill, who would take on the core responsibility? Most times it's mum or dad, but sometimes they're not always in the room or need to go and do something. So then it would fall to the siblings. So, in Percy's case, he doesn't know he's a young carer, but he knows that he supports his brother who has 24/7 care and often the parents time is with his brother. So his mum wrote in and said Percy wants to be a train driver. So, we turned that into a week away for the family. Stayed at the New Forest but they went to the Isle of Wight for the train experiences at a steam train engine museum and Percy got to do his stuff, but we enhanced it by sending them to Ponds Park. They stayed in a really nice log cabin, and they just had a week for Percy just to be a kid, to be away from his usual care responsibilities, because they do say young carers can spend up to fifty-one hours a week being a carer without even realising, which is just insane. So, Percy dependent on Rory and how that progresses, he'd be helping out more. So, it was lovely to be able to do his wish. Which recent wish surprised you the most, either in the planning or in the impact that it had. A young girl, thirteen-year-old called Niamh, has been nonverbal all her life, and her parents, knowing Liz from a local school in Crewe, got in touch with us and one of the systems that was tested with me to see if she would understand the system, a system called Eyegaze. And that's where it follows the beneficiary’s eyes around a small screen, like an iPad that would pick up words, sentences, paragraphs, stuff like that. And Neave took it like a fish to water really, and started to communicate as soon as she started testing the system. So we purchased one of these systems for Neave and her parents probably don't like us now because Niamh can say what she likes, but for her to communicate down to the simple things like, I fancy going to the park, can we go here? Can we go there? This is what I want for dinner. Just open the world of Niamh and certainly opens the world of her parents, her brother and her friends as well. For her to take that school now and be able to talk and communicate with her friends and teachers is certainly life changing. And it would be for any of us if we were unable to see, hear, speak. It's a total sensory area that we need to get through life, and I think we all take it for granted and for her to change that overnight. It's like having a baby looking through glasses for the first time and seeing the world. All you all hearing sounds for the first time, we'd all want that. That was definitely a benefit for that family and a massive benefit for us, because me and Katie went round to see Niamh and her mum Liz and saw the benefit before she had the machine of what a difference their world would make after having this machine. Has there been a wish which really tested your skills as wish granters? Yes, there's been many. Meet and greets are always quite a challenge because someone will ask to meet someone particularly famous and is never a guarantee. So when someone asks for a celebrity meet, we always say we'll try for the first three months. If you don't get anywhere, then we will come back to you. We can either keep trying or we can change your wish. We give that option because nothing's guaranteed in that world. But our first ever meet and greet was for a thirty-two-year-old man called Steven, and he had muscular dystrophy, and he was surviving through a Mickey ventilator for that condition. He lived good years, but unfortunately, Steven has passed away since this wish, which makes it even more special and significant for us. At the time, it was the first one and he was thirty-two and absolute F1 fan. Max Verstappen fan, and he was going to the Grand Prix and he asked to meet Max Verstappen. Well, as you can imagine, I was like, oh wow, that's quite a big one. How are we going to make this happen? And it was the test. It was through social media. Mum was very open for Steven to come onto camera. She would speak on his behalf and we did this hashtag Max meet Steven. And it went viral for our first celebrity meet. And that's how we got there. We connected with all of the fans from Red bull, and it went crazy on Twitter at the time. And Instagram. My phone blew up for about nine days with meet and greets. We usually like to attend that we can support the family, but that just wasn't the case in this one. It went down to the very deadline of the day Steven was going and Red bull finally came back to us and said, we will get Max to meet Steven. So, it was absolutely incredible to be able to tell him. And then mum filmed him being told it was happening with Steven. He had challenges. Transport him to the Grand Prix was a lot of effort for him. It really knocked him out. So, when he went on the day, he had to rest before, but he got to meet Max in the paddock before race morning. Red Bull from the whole thing. He met all of the mechanics. He met some of the other drivers and they filmed it. He had about a fifteen-minute session with Max. Mum would ask the questions that Steven had prepared and Max would reply to Steven. It's a really lovely video that sticks in my mind. One because of his age, because there wouldn't have been anywhere else for Steven to go at thirty-two, because he was really struggling with his condition, and mum thinks that this was uplifted him and helped his positivity and his mindset for the next three years. His mum shared how this wish helped him believe he could achieve anything. He went on to raise awareness for The Genie’s Wish and support his local church. He always faced life with positivity. The wish experience lifted him up and his family and his story will continue to be shared with great fondness. Just like now. And that was our first celebrity meet and greet. I did panic thinking we were going to have a million requests after that one because of how much attention it caught online. But we had one more a year later. For Max Verstappen, it was the stress of will it happen? Will it not happen? Because Steven was like putting all of his hope into us making it happen? I think the other part of it going viral for him was like really exciting, seeing all these people in support of him. Everyone was rooting for this to happen, so it was amazing for it to all come to light and said he has sadly passed away, but his mum is still closely connected to us as a charity and we speak with just great fondness about Steven and always will do. What is it you're working on at the moment and how can listeners help? We have around twenty wishes waiting at the minute. We've got some in the background that are already happening and that list is forever growing, as well as the days out that we organise, but ways to get involved as many ways. The most accessible way is a new campaign that we've launched called power of the pound. It is as simple as it sounds. We are asking for one pound a month, twelve pounds a year to support twelve wishes. So, on the first of every month, we will launch a new wish story. And that whole month people can sign up to the power of the pound. And that one pound obviously is powerless on its own. But as a collective, the more people that give, if we have an army of wish givers, we can make some amazing things happen. In the first month, it's raised over one thousand pounds already, so it's already becoming effective with the price of a coffee being up to five pounds. Asking for one pound a month is pretty accessible for most people, because a lot of people ask how they can support us. People are struggling at the minute and micro-donations are the way forward. At the end of each month, I provide a newsletter to anyone that joins up with an update on that wish. That is the beauty of our wishes. We can talk about the story from the beginning, during and after the wish. So, everyone that does support us or gives money or does whatever they do, they'll always know the outcome of that fundraising, which is really lovely, but there's so many other ways you can get involved. Yeah, a lot of it is events and challenges. So, we get involved with many different events every single year, and we try and change it up every year as well. But you can get involved with things like our gala dinners, our charity golf days, the mainstream, things like Skydives. We're looking to do a lot of the Paris bike ride in 2027. We get involved with things like the Arctic trek that we try and hold every January. We have a Borneo trek next October in 2027. We've done the Arctic trek three times now, but also, we've been to Kilimanjaro. There's tons of stuff you can get involved with. And even if you don't want to do a physical challenge like a marathon across the world, there's simple aspects you can do maybe at work or in the community, like bake sales and raffles, summer fetes and school fetes. There's three of us that are split across the country that can kind of get involved with your corporate, get involved with you as an individual in the community. And what we try and do is tie up with a local wish to your fundraising so we can bespoke, make any event really in the world to your business. If you're in the position to help charities and you're able to do something, then you should because it gives you so much back as well. It's so rewarding doing something, and most people that do something for charity will continue to do so, because that feeling of giving something back, it's really worthwhile every time you do something. It's just such a great experience. And then you're also giving back. We're telling you the story of what you're supporting, and I really think that everyone should just try and do something at least once. I believe that you will not never do something again. It's infectious. One of the main events that we do a lot for corporates is the national Three Peaks, and they could help at least two of our wishes on our waiting list to take them off just from doing that over a weekend, so they can literally see where the money's going straight away. And we would feedback them with stories straight away, or as soon as we can do the wishes, where we can get a minibus of a minimum of eight people, they can raise four or five thousand pounds. Just over two days is massive for us and makes a real difference. Yeah. Looking ahead to the next few months, what's coming up for The Genie’s Wish and what should our listeners be keeping an eye out for? I've got a gala dinner on the fourth of September at The Mere in Cheshire. I've got another one on the thirty first of October, which is Halloween themed at the DoubleTree Hilton in Stoke. I'm just starting to organise one in the North west at Stoke Farm Barn in March 2027, just outside Tatton Park. People can get involved with the London and Paris bike ride for next year. We're taking people on board for the Borneo trek in October next year, and even people applying for the Arctic trek in January 2028. So there's tons of stuff going on. They can inquire through our website, or they can contact Katie or I at any point to find out more information. Martin lives in Cheshire and I live in Portsmouth, so some of the events are more localised around where we are, just naturally because we network more in these areas. But we do cover England and we're looking for new areas to reach into all the time. So, if anyone thinks, actually I know a young carer in Wales or Birmingham, don't be put off by where our events are because we can put on an event in any location and it's just having the right people in the area to help us support that. But in the south, in Hedge End Southampton, where we're having a gala next September at the Hilton this September, we've got a golf day on the twenty eighth of September. It's actually Suffolk Golf course in Hampshire. We're doing a few different community things over Christmas. So I would say look at our social media pages mainly for that. All of the updates of the events we do are on there and our website. We are at The Genie’s Wish on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn. Martin and I also have our own pages on LinkedIn, which we add in things quite often. We're always open to have a chat about what those ideas are. Also, if you've got an idea and you want that to come to life and support a local wish or a wish on our list, then obviously we're always happy to chat to people and see what we can do. We've done some random things. We really have. The more unique, the better when the southeast London and the northwest, because that's where we're based. But we're looking for individuals and corporates across England and Wales. So, if there is a person in your area that we're able to help with a wish, then that's an ideal start for us to get you involved with fundraising. And literally, you know where the money's going because you see the wish in your area being done and granted. So anywhere across the country, we're coming to have a chat with you, either in your workplace or in a school or in a community centre, then please get in touch with us. Katie Martin, thank you so much for joining us for the very first episode of The Wish Report. It's been wonderful to hear not only how The Genie’s Wish came into being, but also the passion, dedication, and incredible people behind every wish you grant. This episode has really set the scene, and from our next episode onwards, the Wish Report will become your regular quarterly update from The Genie’s Wish. We'll be looking back at the wishes that have been granted, catching up on those currently being planned, hearing the stories behind the scenes, celebrating the amazing supporters, volunteers and partners who make it all possible, and looking ahead to events, campaigns and opportunities where you, our listeners, can get involved. If today's episode has inspired you, whether you'd like to volunteer your time, offer your skills, support an event, make a donation, or simply help spread the word, we'd love for you to become part of The Genie’s Wish community. You can find all the latest news, upcoming events, ways to support, and information about The Genie’s Wish through our website and social media channels. Thank you so much for your time today both. Thank you. It was really great to see you and tell you our story. Until next time, thank you for listening and keep spreading a little magic.