Meet Eashan

According to his mum – Eashan is everyone’s friend. “He has a confidence and charm about him, but he’s also incredibly empathetic for such a young boy,” says Jennifer.  

Even though he’s still young, Eashan knows he’s been very brave. He has neurofibromatosis Type 1 and was diagnosed with an optic pathway glioma aged five, which severely impacted his eyesight. Eashan is only seven, but he’s already gone through 18 months and 53 rounds of chemotherapy, many blood and platelet transfusions, and countless hospital stays.   

To make it through and recognise how brave he was being, we developed his superhero alter ego: Eashan the Brave.   

Why Eashan chose the wish

Eashan was over the moon when he was told a charity wanted to grant him a wish. “He was incredibly sweet while trying to work out what he wanted to wish for,” says Jennifer. “Originally, he wanted to just go to London, so that he could see his daddy’s office. We had to explain to his that he could think about something even more special!” 

Through conversations with his wish granter, Eashan’s family were able to explore this idea. Eashan eventually landed on going to London to see The Lion King and doing lots of sightseeing too. Eashan loved the idea of The Lion King, because he said lions are brave like he is.     

On the day

“When it came to the actual show, it was like nothing we’d seen before. He was completely engrossed. And I just loved watching him watch it,” says Jennifer. “After the show Eahsan was able to meet the cast! They all addressed Eashan as Eashan the Brave, which made him smile from ear to ear. Eashan felt like a real superhero!”  

On one of the other days of the trip, Eashan’s family visited different London sights, like Trafalgar Square and the London Eye. Jennifer explains: “It was wonderful as parents to see him and his sister have their whole worlds expanded. We live in a small village anyway, but during his illness, our lives were really only as big as the journey to and from the hospital. So to have him understand that the world is huge and busy and exciting was so wonderful.” 

She adds: “And because we had so many fun things to concentrate on, Eashan didn’t bat an eye at all the walking we did. There was a point during his illness where he was so weak he couldn’t walk across a room unaided, but here he was walking 13 miles in a day! I think part of us thought we’d never see Eashan be as active as he was pre-treatment again.” 

The impact of the wish

Reflecting on the wish, Jennifer says it felt like a wish for the whole family. “Eashan is still listening to The Lion King songs with his little sister even weeks after his wish. And often I’ll walk in on Eashan reenacting a scene from the show with his sister and their toys.” 

“It’s horrible that Eashan has had to grow up a bit faster than other little boys and knows about things like chemotherapy and blood transfusions – but with his wish he now has this super cool experience which is totally outside of his illness. It makes him feel included when he had his own exciting experiences to share on the return to school after the summer – we’ll never forget it.”