Nikolas Ritschel Foundation grants wish for West Virginia woman

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - A local cancer foundation delivered a very special wish to a 23-year-old West Virginia woman this week.

Members of Nik’s Wish gathered at 8:30 Friday morning at the Hilton Garden Inn in Rockford, to present this year’s recipient, Taylor with a surprise all-inclusive trip to Hawaii for her and her family.

The young woman told Nik’s Wish members that reason she wants to visit Oahu is for the beaches and that she had always wanted to visit Pearl Harbor.

Taylor is in Rockford this weekend, speaking at the Anna Miller Foundation Golf Outing, a local organization that is dedicated to Anna Miller who tragically passed away from cancer at age 22.

Anna was also a recipient of a wish from Nik’s Wish, but was never able to have her wish fulfilled because she succumbed to her illness too quickly. Because of that, the Anna Miller Foundation created Anna’s Wish – which sponsors a yearly wish in partnership with Nik’s Wish.

Taylor is a junior at Shepherd University majoring in biology and chemistry. She was officially diagnosed with localized Ewing Sarcoma of the pelvis in January 2020. Her first line of treatment involved chemotherapy and a very intense surgery termed a type I/II internal hemipelvectomy, which took months of healing and physical therapy to learn how to walk again.

Taylor had a localized relapse in June 2021- which meant more chemotherapy, another surgery and radiation.

As of August 2022, she is in remission.