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Local Boy Gets Make A Wish Trip

As he rides around on his scooter, Bradley Hartman seems like your typical kid. “Bradley is a very active 5 year-old,” mother Jessica Hartman says.  “He is awes...

As he rides around on his scooter, Bradley Hartman seems like your typical kid.

“Bradley is a very active 5 year-old,” mother Jessica Hartman says.  “He is awesome.”

When Bradley was just a baby, Jessica took him to the doctor for a simple surgery.  The doctors then told her that because of an issue with his platelets, the surgery could not be done.  That visit later lead to an oncologist visit and Jessica soon found out her son was anything but typical.

“His actual disease is dyskeratosis conjenita.”

Dyskeratosis conjenita is an incurable progressive disease that affects the bone.  That mixed with various other serious medical complications, eventually lead to the 5 year-old having to undergo a bone marrow transplant last August.

The family spent months in St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.  It was a trip, but not one to remember fondly.  But on Thursday, the Make a Wish Foundation will give Bradley gets the trip he has been dreaming of.

“He was dead set, Mickey Mouse.  Nothing else was going to do,” Jessica explains.

So Bradley will head out to meet Mickey and he already has a plan in place.

“I am going to ask him to take a picture,” Bradley says.

His sister and brother will come with as well to ride the rides and stay by Bradley’s side.

“I am going with my brother just in case he falls off [the roller coaster],” his 7 year-old brother, Nathan says.  “Making sure he is safe.”

The family will fly out of the Quad City’s International Airport Thursday to Disney World.

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