Make-A-Wish Australia

Introducing Ruby

When Ruby was born there was no sign that anything was wrong. The next day she was rushed into surgery and then diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. In the first year of her life, Ruby had 11 hospital admissions and spent 77 nights in hospital. 

And it hasn’t ended there, in fact Ruby had further surgery as recently as last year.

But, Ruby doesn't let her cystic fibrosis hold her creativity back. While dealing with everything life has dealt her, Ruby has never lost her love of art.

Ruby's wish builds confidence

What we didn't know before Ruby experienced her wish to meet her illustrator heroes at VidCon - she's not just a good artist, she's an amazing artist!  

Ruby's wish came true in 2018 and since then her passion for art has only grown.

Having the opportunity to sit around a table and draw with her heroes, making up stories, laughing and joking together really made Ruby realise they were real people too. They gave her some great tips and helped to give Ruby a confidence in her art she didn't have before.

Ruby even designed each of them a t-shirt - which they all wore on stage!

Ruby gets a quick selfie with her heroes - James, Jayden and Jazza

Ruby's creativity flourished

When we heard Ruby talk about her love of art and how it helped her escape from hospital visits and never ending treatments, we knew we wanted to help Ruby's artistic flare come to life.

Well, when we found out Ruby was designing a t-shirt to celebrate her experience with Make-A-Wish we knew we had to make it a reality.  You can see that the design really captures the imagination that choosing a wish unleashes.

When we asked Ruby what she thought about the opportunity to design a t-shirt for Make-A-Wish she simply said “I’m so excited. I can’t wait to get started!"

But, to make this t-shirt a reality we need your help.

To print 1,000 of these limited release t-shirts we need to raise $6,370 - can you chip in?

If we can get these t-shirts printed we can hand them out to future wish children, Ruby will be able to give some to her family and friends and she has even kindly allowed us to sell some of the t-shirts to raise funds to make more wishes like hers come true.

Ruby's story

               - Karen, Ruby's mum

There was no indication that anything was wrong throughout the pregnancy or immediately when she was born, but by about 12 hours old she started throwing up bright green and her stomach started swelling up like a balloon. They immediately took her away from me.

The next day I was still unaware of what the problem was, but after I gave her her first bath, she was rushed away for urgent surgery.

She was diagnosed at 30 hours old.  Ruby had what was called meconium ileus – her bowel was completely blocked, and they had to remove the blockage. She was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

She spent the next three weeks in ICU, so we couldn’t stay with her, we couldn’t even hold her.

We had so many ups and downs trying to get her to feed, which she just didn't want to do. Every two hours we would feed Ruby until she could keep the milk down - it took four weeks.  

We spent the first 12 months in and out of hospital.  Ruby had 11 hospital admissions and 77 nights away from home.  

Since then we've really had to watch hydration and salt levels because her bowel would just stop.  And that still happens now if she gets dehydrated or exhausted.  

Kids with cystic fibrois can try and shut themselves away, so no one sees what's going on.  Ruby on the otherhand has always been very open, very honest with her limitations and what it all means.  Ruby even stood up infront of her school and did a presentation about what cycstic fibrois is and trying to make people understand it's not as scary as you might think.

Ruby has been able to work out her own dosage since she was about four and swallowing capsules since she was about 10 months old.  She does all her own nebulisers and physio every morning which meant that she could be just like a normal kid and head off on school camp last year.  The wish had a lot to do with her having the confidence to do it.  

Seeing that her heroes liked to scribble in a book, the same way she does was really good, they were really supportive of her.  Since her wish Ruby's got much more confidence in her art.  Seeing first hand that these famous people were just like her, just like everyone else and seeing that really made her realise what her talents were.

Where will your support actually go?

Well...

Our goal is to cover the $6,370 cost for the production of 1,000 t-shirts designed by Ruby. 

With those 1,000 t-shirts we'll be able to:

• Give future wish kids likes Ruby t-shirts to help inspire their own Wish Journey
• Stock up Ruby with her t-shirts to give to loved ones and keep as a reminder of her talent
• Raise funds for more wishes through the sale of the t-shirts online - thanks to Ruby for wanting to support future wishes!

With your help Ruby will see her awesome design come to life on her limited run Make-A-Wish t-shirt!

To help you pick the perfect fit

T-shirt size chart