Six year-old Darcy is frustrated. He jumps down off his chair, pulls up his shirt, and says “See my tummy? It’s fat. It’s fat and getting fatter. My face is chubby too. I want my normal face back. That’s the steroids, you know. I’m fragile. But we’ll figure it all out!”

The surprisingly mature and always cheerful youngster has fought a complex combination of extreme allergies practically since birth, and has spent far too much of the time kids usually spend playing, attending school, and getting into mischief in hospitals and clinics.

“He’s just the bravest boy I’ve ever known,” Darcy’s mother Nicole Tremblay explains.  “Here’s this kid who’s been through so much… and all he wants is his family.”

When The Children’s Wish Foundation told Darcy that he and his family could have any heartfelt wish he expressed, they were surprised and taken aback by his simple answer.

“My wish was for my Grammy and Grampa to move from way out west in Edmonton to where we are on the East coast so they could be near me. It’s hard to be sick, and I love them so much. When I talk to them on the telephone it’s all crackly and that’s no good. I feel like I’m just all alone. ”

The Children’s Wish Foundation arranged for the physical move of Darcy’s grandparents and helped them find a new place close to Darcy and his immediate family. “Of course having my mother and father here is a real Godsend,” Nicole says: “With three small children, and one of them seriously ill, it has improved our quality of life dramatically. But the thing I can’t stop thinking about is how selfless this young man is. He could have had a trip, a dream bedroom, a chance to visit his heroes, or anything.”

Darcy, showing the enormous wisdom so common in young Wish children, simply smiles. “When there’s no family, it’s hard. When you’ve got family, you’ve got everything.”