MINNEAPOLIS — Mark Solom's doctor was surprised by how he reacted when she showed him his CT scans, which showed his liver cancer had spread.
"He didn’t ask me anything," said Dr. Surbhi Shah, a physician at the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Center, "And then when he opened his mouth, he said, 'Is there a Make a Wish for grown ups?' And I was like... Mark why do you ask? And he said, 'I’ve never been on a plane.' I asked him well, where would you want to go?"
"Disney. In Florida," Solom said simply when we asked him the same question.
Solom, who was diagnosed with liver cancer three years ago, has never been on a plane.
Neither has his foster brother and caretaker, David Wagner.
"We tried to save a couple times [to go to Disney], but we just didn’t have enough money," he said, "Something breaks in the house, you got to repair it."
Wagner has his own health issues, including cystic fibrosis and kidney failure.
"I was like, we need to make it happen if we can," said Shah, "I reached out to my team of social workers and they rallied for [Solom]."
Solom's care team reached out to the Dream Foundation, which granted Solom's wish, paying for a trip to Disney World for him and Wagner.
"I have never flown before and Mark’s never flown before," Wagner said, "So, this is an adventure we’ll take together."
The care team surprised Solom with the news last week, during what he thought was going to be another appointment.
"I was shocked," Solom said.
"I don’t know if he didn’t have a cancer diagnosis how his life would be, how different his life would be, but this definitely made a difference in his life," Shah said.
Solom and Wagner leave for their trip Saturday.