By JESSE GRAHAM
A SAN DIEGO family made their way to the Healesville Sanctuary last week as part of a once-in-a-lifetime wish-granting trip.
The Krueger family came to the Sanctuary on Wednesday 3 December during their week-long stay in the country, visiting from San Diego in the United States of America.
The trip was organised by the Make a Wish Foundation and Isagenix with Ingolf and Stephanie Krueger for their 12-year-old son, Ben, who is undergoing treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Ben told the Mail that the reason for the trip was simple: he really wanted to meet a platypus.
He not only got to meet a platypus that morning, but he also got to wade into platypus Yami’s enclosure at the sanctuary with his mother and have a play.
“It was amazing – I didn’t know what to expect,” Ben said.
“It was very playful and very nice to play with.”
Staff at the sanctuary then organised for Ben and his family to watch the Spirits of the Sky presentation and to stay back and meet Millie the Barking Owl with her keeper, Norm.
“Sometimes, the birds swooped really close and we had to duck out of the way, so that was special,” he said.
He said that his parents sprung the surprise on him a week before their arrival on 30 November, and that he was packing as much into his Australian week as possible.
On the Tuesday, he visited the Melbourne Zoo with his family, on the Thursday, he was bound for Phillip Island, to hopefully see penguins, and then the Kruegers were heading off for the Otway National Park and a canoe tour.
Ben said he hoped to see more platypuses over his time in the country, and thanked everyone involved in organising his special trip.
Mr Krueger said that Ben was diagnosed in July 2013, and had been going through a difficult year of treatment, so the trip came as a moment of relief before his next two years of treatment began.
The family returned home on Sunday 7 December.
