From: Dr. Cauvery Pal, Dreamflight Medical Director

January 2015

Dear Doctor,

You are invited to nominate a child/ren for Dreamflight 2015. The dates of the trip this year are October 17-27. This letter is intended for your guidance when completing the form.

For us to consider any child please answer ALL the questions clearly using BLACK pen, ensuring also that the contact details are correct and thepostcodeincluded. The deadline for the completed Nomination Forms is 13 April 2015.

Below is some information about the Dreamflight charity and the children we aim to support, to help guide you when considering children to nominate on this year’s trip.

  • Dreamflight is a charity devoted to taking children, aged 8-14years, to visit Walt Disney World and other attractions in Florida. The trip lasts for ten nights away from home, therefore it is important to nominate children whom you feel can cope with a holiday of this length.
  • We aim to take children whose problems are such that they are unlikely ever to be able to go on such a trip without the full medical, nursing and physiotherapy support team which we take with us. We give priority to those who have only a short-term prognosis but will consider those children with long-term medical problems combined with social circumstances which preclude them from ever going on a major holiday.
  • We take a limited number of children who are completely wheelchair dependent and we want to know about those who are likely to need wheelchair support in the course of a long day’s excursion. This information is essential to assist in the planning support for the trips to all the theme parks. Due to the strenuous nature of the trip we are unable to take wheelchair dependent children above 50kg (8st).
  • It is imperative that you nominate children who are developmentally able to appreciate this holiday and whose behaviour is such that they will not disrupt the enjoyment of the others in the party. To this end I ask that you should give an accurate picture of each of your nominated children. A child with serious behavioural problems can ruin the trip for the others.
  • Additionally, owing to the strict security precautions that we need to take, e.g. room curfew at 9pm and constant escorting by an adult, we find that children who are more mature for their age and/or more ‘streetwise’ resent this treatment and do not benefit from or appreciate the holiday. It would therefore be wiser and fairer not to nominate them. This would leave a space for a child that would benefit more.
  • We always take a number of children with Cystic Fibrosis. However, you will know that there is a problem with Pseudomonas Cepacia, especially to children who go on communal holidays. I would therefore ask you to nominate only children who have not been infected with this bacterium. Negative swab tests should accompany the nominations. Only one such child per group of 16 will be selected on the advice of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.
  • Unfortunately we are unable to offer a Dreamflight holiday to children with Sickle Cell Anaemia.
  • If a child/ren you nominate is selected then a letter may follow asking you to sign a form in order for us to receive compassion tickets for the child to visit the theme parks.
  • Please discuss the nomination with the parents/guardian, but not the child. There is a less than 50% chance that any one child will be selected. Parents/guardian should be reminded of the difficulties they will have if they disclose the possibilities before selection has taken place!

Thank you in advance for your time– your nomination may enable a child to take part in their holiday of a lifetime with Dreamflight, so we do appreciate your support.

Dreamflight reserves the right to withdraw their invitation to any child selected at any time prior to departure should the information provided on the form be inaccurate or incomplete.