About Make-A-Wish | Rêves d’enfants Canada
Working to make the wishes of critically ill children come true for more than 40 years now, the Make-A-Wish | Rêves d’enfants Canada Foundation offers 5 different types of wishes: a wish to have, to meet, to go, to become or to give.
While every wish is different and while executing these wishes aren’t always easy, they operate with one very important, common goal in mind: to replace some of the fear and pain of illness by excitement and hope for things to come.
“What we always see at the reveal of every wish is the surprise and feeling of joy of everyone involved,” said Make-A-Wish | Rêves d’enfants Canada’s Farah Ben Cheikh on the day that Mohammed’s wish came true. “Going through illness is hard on the child and their families, so being able to provide them all with a great experience is extremely touching to see, no matter how many times you see it.”
From a love of cars and motorsport to a sim racing rig through Make-A-Wish | Rêves d’enfants Canada
Unfortunately, Mohammed spent a lot of time as a kid at a Montreal hospital. It was there that he first met the Make-A-Wish | Rêves d’enfants Canada team about halfway through his treatments—who brought him the promise of a wish fulfilled—and where he learned all about what the organization does. After careful consideration, he had initially decided that his wish was to travel to a famous waterpark—but the global pandemic rendered this wish unfeasible.
After taking some more time to reflect, Mohammed realized that his love of motorsport was taking up more and more place in his life. He had friends with pedals and gearshifts at home whom he loved to visit and play with, and the idea came into his head that he could have the same thing for himself at home. He then began looking online where he found a treasure trove of different peripherals and sim racing accessories that blew his mind, ignited his imagination and solidified his new wish—he wanted to race like the pros.
After months of collaboration and planning, Mohammed finally got to see his wish come true on March 22nd 2024. Before he even saw his new rig, he was brimming with excitement, stating that he had already invited his friends to “sleep over and race ALL night!”
From PlayStation games to a professional sim racing rig
Mohammed's journey into the world of motorsport however began long before the notion of fulfilling his wish took shape. As a teenager he spent a lot of time playing racing games on his trusty PlayStation 3, for which he even had a steering wheel. He started playing Gran Turismo and eventually found his way to more competitive games such as Assetto Corsa and Forza, but his fascination with motorsport didn’t stop at the digital realm.
When he got a little bit older, he got himself a LEGO Bugatti kit that required him to assemble more than 1,500 tiny pieces. Even though the build took a few months to complete, it was a labor of love that he genuinely enjoyed working on every day. From there, his thirst for automotive knowledge intensified, and he soon found himself watching YouTube videos to learn about everything from tire changes and oil swaps, all the way to how to rebuild cars from scraps in junkyards.
Once he started learning more about professional motorsport—specifically F1—he realized that it was a lot more than simply driving a car. He realized that there are a lot of regulations and technical nuances, and he wanted to learn to master them all.
For Mohammed, the journey into motorsport was not just a passion—it was a pursuit of knowledge, a quest for excellence, and now, thanks to D-BOX, Advanced SimRacing and Make-A-Wish | Rêves d’enfants Canada, a wish become reality.
Going beyond Mohammed’s wildest dreams from the very first laps
With the big day having finally arrived and with his sim racing rig having been entirely assembled, installed and configured by Advanced SimRacing, Mohammed was eager to get behind the wheel to put every precious piece of advice the Advanced SimRacing team provided him. He was also itching to try the many games given to him—including a one-year license for iRacing, the world’s biggest sim racing game—that was generously given to him by iRacing themselves, Mohammed wasted no time and got straight to racing. His joy was contagious, and everyone involved in making his wish come true took in the touching moments that he got to try his new simulator for the first time.
After his first races, Mohammed was asked what he thought.
“I wasn’t expecting that!” he exclaimed with utter joy. “I was expecting it to be amazing, but not that amazing! It went above and beyond all my expectations. My dad and brothers are going to love it, too.”
He continued to demonstrate his knowledge of motorsport by elaborating on what impressed him the most about his experience.
“The biggest surprise for me was the movement and vibrations. How the car moves, vibrates, goes forward, goes backwards, goes up and goes in all directions. It feels like you’re floating in the air,” he explained. “The combination of all these elements, plus the screen, the pedals that apply pressure, the gearshift, everything is mechanical and has haptic feedback. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s so much cooler than driving my mom’s car,” he laughed.
The healing power of a wish
It’s those moments of pure joy and exhilaration that Make-A-Wish | Rêves d’enfants Canada strive to create for every child who gets referred to them by either their medical team or support circles.
“Sometimes, as it might feel like someone is losing hope with their illness, but the wish will always keep moving forward” explained Ben and Farah Cheikh. “The wish moving forward and coming closer to fruition can replace the fear and worry felt by the child and their families. It’s scientifically proven that having this hope can have a positive impact on medical outcomes, which is why every wish is so important to us,” she said.
The importance of giving back
Mohammed's story is one that embodies the transformative power of wishes and the importance of giving back to your community whenever possible, which is one of D-BOX's prioritized ESG pillars. As a matter of fact, this is the second wish that D-BOX has helped make come true since their partnership with Make-A-Wish | Rêves d’enfants Canada began less than a year ago.
Looking ahead, we're eager to continue fostering joy and connection with partners such as Make-A-Wish | Rêves d’enfants Canada and Advanced SimRacing and we’re eager to continue use our haptic technology to brighten lives, but most of all, we’re excited to see where Mohammed’s budding sim racing career will take him!
