Making dreams come true
Andrew being interviewed by the Otago Daily Times (along with Dunedin Wildlife Hospital mascot, Dr Giles!)
We recently met Andrew, an astonishing young man from Utah in the USA. Andrew has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, meaning he is no stranger himself to hospitals and treatments.
Andrew’s lifelong dream was to see penguins and his visit here was made possible by Make-A-Wish International and Make-A-Wish NZ.
When he was young, Andrew even dreamed of being a penguin himself! They say if you dream of being a penguin you have a strong desire to be resilient, navigate challenges and overcome obstacles. Andrew certainly has all these qualities in spades!
Andrew’s visit timed perfectly for he and his wonderful family to meet our expert wildlife veterinary team and see some of the ground-breaking management programme for hoiho/yellow-eyed penguin chicks being hand-reared and treated for diseases before release back to the wild. Hoiho are one of the world’s rarest penguin species and this management programme represents a bold intervention to help the species survive.
Andrew got to help out our Wildlife Veterinary Nurse Emily (watch video below) and was also interviewed by Seven Sharp (a current affairs TV programme) and the Otago Daily News (ODT story and video) while he was here.
His visit sparked the fire in our bellies to kickstart our own dream for a state-of-the-art hospital facility with education and visitor capacity where everyone can visit us and learn more about our unique wildlife. It’s a big goal and you’ll hear more about this from us soon.
