| Last updated at 8:35 AM on 07/08/09 |
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Dixon MacLeod waves to his little brother down on the ground far below the Sea King helicopter that Dixon was riding Thursday over Cornwall as part of a Run 4 Wishes fundraising campaign now underway on P.E.I. Members of the Canadian Navy with support from a Sea King helicopter crew are running across P.E.I. to raise money for the Children’s Wish Foundation. Guardian photo
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Local boy gets special wish to ride in the big chopper 
TERESA WRIGHT
The Guardian
Seven-year-old Dixon MacLeod got to wave to his brother from the sky on Thursday.
MacLeod was one of three families who were treated to rides aboard one of the Canadian Navy Sea King helicopters. The helicopters were on P.E.I. to help the crew of HMCS Charlottetown raise awareness for their fundraising campaign Run 4 Wishes, which raises money for the Children’s Wish Foundation.
MacLeod is one many P.E.I. children who have benefited from the generosity of Islanders and Canadians to this charity. Up until about three years ago, Dixon was rarely out of a hospital or out of quarantine. He was diagnosed as nyphrotic from an early age and received years of steroid treatments for his kidney disease that didn’t seem to work. He then underwent mild chemotherapy, which helped him immensely. He just finished his first full year at school.
Thanks to donations like the ones being solicited this week by the HMCS Charlottetown crew, the Children’s Wish Foundation was able to grant Dixon’s wish to go to Disney World in Florida. And on Thursday, he got the experience of a lifetime when he waved to his brother in North River from high above the ground when he got a ride in the Sea King from Halifax Thursday.
The skies were clear and the view of Charlottetown and the surrounding areas from the sky was breathtaking. Dixon’s mother Sherrie Dixon-MacLeod was brimming with excitement to ride with her son. Sitting along the side of the helicopter’s open side door, she dangled her legs over the tiny houses and waterways below.
“Isn’t this amazing, Dixon,” she shouted to her son over the hum of the whirring engine.
Dixon, obviously a little nervous at the height, nodded. Then he smiled and gave his mum a big thumbs-up.
“He’s loving it. This is just an experience of a lifetime,” Dixon-MacLeod said. “I am so happy he got to be part of this.”
The Run 4 Wishes team will begin day four of their five-day marathon today when the head out from Georgetown, through Poole’s Corner, Vernon River, Cherry Valley, Pownal and Tea Hill to end at the Stratford Sobeys. A big Red Friday rally will be held there at 2:40. The running team will join the P.E.I. Military Family Services for this event and will cut a cake for the crowd to celebrate the event. The Sea King will be on hand in the Sobey’s parking lot for this event.
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