Make-A-Wish Foundation Sponsors Statesville Family's Trip
BY MIKE FUHRMAN
For three days in March, Selah Sanchez was on top of the world.
After flying to Los Angeles with her parents and younger siblings, the Statesville teen hopped in a van and visited the Pacific Ocean for the first time. They spent the next day at Universal Studios, taking in all the rides. But the highlight of the adventure was the trip to Sony Studios, where Selah got to collaborate with the creative forces behind “Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse.”
“It was amazing! It was crazy!” said the 14-year-old, who aspires to be a filmmaker. “It’s like this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
The whirlwind trip was funded entirely by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Since its founding in Arizona in 1980, the nonprofit organization has granted more than 520,000 wishes to children with serious and often terminal illnesses.
In early 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Selah became a Make-A-Wish child. Her harrowing journey began with blurry vision, difficulty eating, an unexplained fall, and an unusual urge to nap. After Selah’s parents, Isiahs and Toney, noticed her left eye was deviating, they took her to an eye doctor. A few days later, she underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan.
The results came a few days later.
“We were in the middle of Concord Mills when the doctor’s office called,” Toney said. “They said I needed to meet with a neurologist.”
The MRI revealed that Selah had a tangle of blood vessels in her brain, which had created irregular connections between several arteries. This condition, called a cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM), disrupts the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the brain and can lead to seizures, brain damage or stroke.
The AVM measured 5 cm by 5 cm – considered average size – and was located in the right occipital lobe of Saleh's brain.
Isiahs and Toney, married for 19 years, were understandably concerned about their eldest child's well-being.
“The doctors said if the vessel had ruptured, she would have died,” Toney said.
“You hear bizarre stories of people falling and dying – or having strokes,” Isiahs added.
The Mayo Clinic reports that about half of all brain arteriovenous malformations are not diagnosed until they rupture. About 40 percent of patients who rupture die from complications, according to one study.
The teenager did not worry about what might have happened. But she was upset that doctors immediately restricted her activities.
“I wasn’t really scared,” she said. “The only time I was scared was before I had surgery.”
In May 2021, Selah underwent an embolization procedure in which surgeons threaded a line through her leg, heart and brain and filled the malformation with a form of surgical glue.
Two months later, she began five rounds of radiation therapy at Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte.
Other than the spot on her head where she lost her hair due to radiation and the new hair has grown back in curls, there is no indication of what the teenager has endured. She will undergo regular checkups to ensure there are no other problems.
“Just enjoy life”
The Make-A-Wish Foundation was founded more than 40 years ago when Frank “Bopsy” Salazar, a 7-year-old boy with leukemia, wished he could go to Disneyland. The nonprofit organization covers the cost of granting wishes to children with eligible diagnoses.
A Sanchez family friend, Laura Hall, submitted Selah's wish request in 2022. For Selah, who became interested in drawing during the pandemic, nothing could top a trip to Universal and Sony Studios.
The wish was granted, but the trip was delayed due to Covid until March 20-23, 2024.
Although Selah was the official beneficiary of the trip, the entire Sanchez family deserved it. They had been put through a lot during the Covid pandemic. In addition to Selah’s diagnosis and treatment, her father and younger brother also had to deal with medical issues.
In July 2020, after suffering from chronic headaches for more than a decade, Isiahs underwent surgery to relieve pressure on his brain and spinal cord caused by an Arnold-Chiari malformation. The Sanchez’s oldest son, 10-year-old Gideon, was also diagnosed with the same genetic condition.
The journey was an epic adventure that will leave memories for years to come.
Besides the beach trip—“The water was cold. My brother was soaked,” Selah says with a laugh—there were other firsts. There was the first bite of a Korean corn dog and the family’s first visit to In & Out Burger. (It’s overrated, according to Selah.) The Sanchez family met other Make-A-Wish families and took a drive to see the famous Hollywood sign. Their driver stopped in the middle of the road so they could get out of the limo and take a photo, causing a slight traffic jam.
Selah said the Sony Studios tour was definitely the highlight of her project. She was able to tour and meet with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse directors Joakim de Santos and Kemp Powers. They gave her advice and positive feedback on her creations. “It was awesome,” she said.
“It was the first drawing class I ever took.” She also got to do a voiceover for a scene in the movie. To fuel her passion for art, they provided her with sketch pads and markers.
From plane tickets to Korean corn dogs, Make-A-Wish paid for it all.
“During those four days, they told me, ‘We don’t want you to worry about anything. Just enjoy life,’” Toney said. “It was cool.”
Selah, who is a little shy, was enthusiastic when asked to evaluate the trip and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“This is awesome! This is incredible! They go above and beyond what is expected of them!”
