After two years involving multiple brain surgeries, plus radiation and chemotherapy treatments, a little girl from Hooksett had a wish come true as she traveled in style to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida to meet Winnie the Pooh.

Still in constant battle with the effects of brain cancer and its treatments, that girl, Stephanie Jacobs, has been doing her part to make similar wishes come true for other children with lifethreatening illnesses.

Jacobs, now a freshman at Manchester High School West, said she’s driven by a sense of kinship.

“I want to help the other kids,” she said. “I know they feel the same way I do.”

For nearly a decade since Jacobs’ diagnosis of brain cancer, she and her family have been constantly raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the international group that provided Jacobs’ trip to Disney World in 1997.

The foundation, founded in 1983, has been dedicated to providing “miracles” to children with terminal and life-threatening illnesses. Jacobs has been a “wish ambassador” for the group, and has been a spokesman and poster child nationally and for the New Hampshire chapter.

Jacobs mother, Dory, said the foundation has provided solace, friendship and relief for her daughter throughout the years.

“It’s such a great thing for the children,” she said. “Just seeing a kid with a smile on their face – it’s wonderful. The whole world could be like that.”

Jacobs was first diagnosed with medulloblastoma – characterized by fast-growing, highly malignant brain tumors – after about six weeks of feeling sick.

The diagnosis finally came after Jacobs came to her mother and said, “Mommy, I see two of everything,” said Dory.

That night, Jacobs was rushed to a Boston hospital for surgery. It was the first night of hundreds that the Jacobs family would stay in hospitals, never certain of Stephanie’s fate.

“You have to read paper after paper of disclaimers,” said Jacobs’ father, Eric.

After a second brain surgery, Jacobs, then 4, was left without virtually all brain function, her parents said.

“She was like a newborn baby,” Dory said.

The following months included 32 radiation treatments requiring anesthesia for the young girl, monthly chemotherapy treatments, and sporadic hospital visits for checkups, blood transfusions and a host of other medical procedures.

“That first year we made at least 100, maybe 120, trips to Boston and back,” said Eric.

The effects of the cancer, and subsequent treatments, still linger. There are problems with Jacobs’ thyroid and pituitary glands. She has cataracts in both eyes and hearing and hair loss. She requires estrogen and nightly growth hormone injections. In a recent visit to an orthodontist, Jacobs had 13 teeth removed.v

But throughout these troubles, Jacobs has maintained her involvement with the New Hampshire Make-A-Wish. Her association with the group has allowed her to rub elbows with some big stars including former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Boston Bruins hockey players, members of the band Rascal Flatts, and Adam Sandler, who still occasionally calls Jacobs.

The New Hampshire Chapter of Make-A-Wish recently had its second annual holiday party, which reunited wish recipients with other families and wish granters.

The reunion was cathartic for the children who may often feel outcast in society, said Dory. “The reunion was great because all the kids were the same,” she said. “It didn’t matter what you looked like or anything, they were all the same.”

Jacobs, who’s been an honors student through her years in the Hooksett School District, said she plans to continue to support Make-A-Wish, and she and a friend recently walked 1.8 miles during West’s annual Turkey Trot, which benefitted the foundation.

“We’re going to do that all four years,” she said.

For more information on the Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Hampshire, call 623-9474, or visit www.newhampshire. wish.org.