A Wish Takes Wing : Youth Battling Cancer Given Chance to See Threatened Condors

He could have asked for anything, this young man from Fullerton fighting to overcome a rare form of cancer.

But instead of opting for a trip to Disneyland or a meeting with his favorite movie star when the Make-A-Wish Foundation offered to fulfill a dream for him, 18-year-old Sean Morrissey wanted to see a California condor, the bird fighting its way back from near extinction.

On Tuesday, in a stuffy, sweat-inducing bird blind, deep in the rugged mountains behind Fillmore, he got his wish--eight times over.

There they were, the eight juvenile California condors, ranging in age from 4 1/2 to 6 months. Oblivious to Morrissey’s rapt stare and quiet demeanor, they squatted balefully on tree stumps, stalked around their pens and even, during one breath-catching moment, showed off their legendary nine-foot wing span.

Accompanied by his three younger sisters, his parents and his aunt, Morrissey spent the day at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, where young condors are taken to test their wings and learn to fly before being released into the wild.

The visit, which coincided with National Wildlife Refuge Week, had been planned since June. Morrissey’s parents contacted the Make-A-Wish Foundation after their son’s condition was diagnosed as soft cell sarcoma, an extremely rare form of cancer. The foundation grants wishes to children ages 2 1/2 to 18 with life-threatening illnesses.

Morrissey had trouble with his left foot since he was seven. But his father, Nick, said repeated trips to doctors over the years never yielded answers.

No one knows for sure when the lump in his foot turned cancerous. But by the time doctors finally identified the problem, they told his family they had to amputate his leg or he probably would die within a year.

Now, with a few more sessions of chemotherapy to go and the kind of quiet determination that fueled him up and down a steep path to the condor’s pens Tuesday--despite a new prosthetic leg--Morrissey has another chance at life. It’s only fitting then, said his aunt, that he would want to meet the condors.

“After what he’s been through, losing his leg, now he has a second chance at life,” Nancy Morrissey said. “And the condors, they were taken out of the wild and now this is their second chance. Both of them wanted freedom and another chance, and they’re both getting it.”

Nancy Morrissey played a key role in developing her nephew’s interest in birds. A longtime Fish and Wildlife employee, she is the assistant refuge manager for western Oregon.

Sean Morrissey learned to love birds on trips to visit her, and the condors particularly attracted his curiosity.

In eighth grade, he wrote a three-page essay about the species at a time when the California Condor Recovery Program was just beginning to reintroduce the birds into the wild after successfully raising chicks in captivity.

Sixteen condors are flying free in Los Padres National Forest and over the next few months, the eight birds Morrissey saw Tuesday will be released to join the others after being trained to avoid humans.

For the biologists who have dedicated years of their professional life to saving the birds from extinction, Morrissey’s request to see the condors was both gratifying and startling. What kind of 18-year-old craves a visit with a giant bird?

“It’s pretty special to have a wish like this,” said David Clendenen, the program’s senior biologist. “He’s obviously a pretty special guy.”

Nick Morrissey said his son’s life has been marked by overcoming adversity. In the spring, Sean Morrissey earned the three final badges he needed to elevate himself to Eagle Scout status, all the while battling the effects of chemotherapy.

“I’m proud of him for who he is,” his father said. “He’s really a strong person.”

Few people are ever allowed to visit the Hopper Mountain refuge, which lies at the end of a bumpy, dirt road dotted with oil wells, hairpin curves and spectacular vistas.

Its isolation gives the condor recovery program much-needed seclusion. Condors are by nature curious, and after previous releases close to civilization, they have been killed by eating anti-freeze and landing on power lines.

As a result, the birds are no longer released in Ventura County. Instead, biologists set them free farther north in Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Today, the Morrissey family will travel into that wild territory, hoping for a look at free-flying condors. Because biologists can’t guarantee a sight of those condors, they opted to bring the family first to the Hopper Mountain refuge.

But even the sight of the birds inside their rearing facility seemed enough for Sean Morrissey. After watching one of the younger birds climb the side of its cage, throw open its wings and experiment with the concept of flapping, Sean Morrissey said his wish fulfillment was already better than he expected.

“That was impressive,” he said, a slight smile lighting his solemn features.