When 18-year-old Daniel Purcell smiles at you – with his tufted red hair and sparkling eyes – you’re going to smile back. You can’t help it. His smile is compelling.
On Wednesday night, at his surprise birthday party, Daniel smiled a lot. He was surrounded by a crowd of more than thirty family members and friends, but this party – at Your Pie in Clarkesville, where Daniel works – was not an ordinary one. It included two friends who are fairly new ones for Daniel and his family. The two represented Make-A-Wish Georgia, part of a national non-profit foundation that utilizes carefully selected volunteers and a specialized selection process to grant the foundation-funded wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. Daniel is one of those children.
At six months of age, Daniel was diagnosed with a brain tumor that was, his mother says, “so large it was close to cutting off the connection of his brain with his body.” He had immediate surgery and over 90% of the tumor was removed. The remainder, though, grew aggressively, and there had already been damage observed in his wrists and hands. Then Daniel underwent chemotherapy and by age 2 he was declared “tumor-free.” For fourteen years he stayed active in school and church activities – as well as Habersham Community Theater. He also developed a substantial interest in photography.
In 2016, when Daniel was 16, a routine MRI showed that the brain tumor had returned. He underwent 12 more months of chemotherapy. The tumor still exists, but Daniel has routine MRIs and regular visits to his neuro-oncologist to make sure the tumor isn’t growing.
The special guests at Daniel’s party Wednesday, from Make-A-Wish Georgia, were Jennifer Burnett (right in photo above) and Kathy Anderson of Dahlonega. They announced that Daniel has received his “wish” from the Foundation – a Canon EOS-1D X Mark II Body Camera, three specialty lenses and a number of other accessories for the camera. The two volunteers also presented a gift they had bought themselves, a case for the professional-quality camera.
Burnett said that Daniel, with his “outgoing nature” shows exceptional talent in photography, and that she hopes the camera and accessories will “help him advance as he pursues that career.” Anderson agreed, saying “the sky’s the limit” for Daniel’s skill development in photography. She also said she finds volunteering with Make-A-Wish “very rewarding” and that she hopes more people will apply to serve North Georgia for the organization.
“There are only four people who have qualified to serve North Georgia,” she added, noting that the four serve the entire portion of the state that is north of Atlanta.
Joy Purcell, Daniel’s mother and the owner and publisher of Now Habersham, said “Make-A-Wish is an amazing organization that does extraordinary things for sick children and their families. Having spent much of the last 18 years in and out of children’s hospitals with my son, I know the toll it can have on a family – not just coping with your own sick child, but also seeing so many other children and parents who are hurting. Make-A-Wish gives the sick kids and their families a chance to forget all of that for a moment while, at the same time, giving them a cherished memory they can hold onto forever.”
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Daniel Purcell will remember Wednesday night. It was truly a surprise party for him, since he had been expecting only “a small family gathering” for his birthday. He said he looks forward to using the Make-A-Wish camera and equipment, as his photography business grows. He especially enjoys photographing people, he said, because he can capture personalities with his camera.
“Everybody has a unique story,” he said, “… a one-of-a-kind experience.”
Daniel smiled when he said that.
