How To Apply For A Wish & Embark On A Wish Journey

Wish eligibility

Make-A-Wish supports children with critical illnesses across two age groups:

Wish hampers for children aged 0–3 years
Wish experiences for children aged 3–18 years

Applications are accepted until a child's 18th birthday.

If a child receives a wish hamper before they turn 3, and continues to meet medical eligibility criteria after their third birthday, they may reapply for a wish experience at that time.
If an application is received closer to a child's 18th birthday, their wish can still be granted - even after they turn 18.

For more information, refer to our wish guidelines.

Make-A-Wish grants wishes to children diagnosed with a life-threatening condition or illness.

We accept applications for life-threatening medical conditions which include, but are not limited to:
- Leukaemia and other childhood cancers
- Certain types of muscular dystrophy
- Cardiac disorders

Unsure whether your child's condition is medically eligible? That's ok! Please complete an application and we'll contact their medical specialist for confirmation.

Your child’s treating medical specialist has the final say on medical eligibility and must approve your application before we can proceed.

We'll do our best to facilitate this as quickly as possible and let you know when your medical specialist has given us approval.

The child should be living in and/or receiving treatment in Australia.

To ensure fairness for the many hundreds of seriously ill children who apply each year, we’re only able to grant one wish per child.

This means a child who has already received a wish from Make-A-Wish* — or from another wish-granting organisation, either in Australia or overseas (such as the Starlight Foundation) — is not eligible for another wish.

Thank you for understanding and helping us reach as many children as possible.

*Wish hamper recipients are an exception.

How medical referral works

At the top of this page, select the option that best represents your relationship to the child you're referring. Complete the form that opens. It should take approximately 5 minutes.

Once we have parental consent, we’ll contact the child’s treating medical specialist to assess medical eligibility and approve the application. Please see eligibility criteria above for more info.

Once the application is approved, we’ll work closely with the family, their local Make-A-Wish volunteers and the broader #WishForce community to capture and bring an incredible Wish Journey to life – with every wish as unique as the child who imagined it!