Tyler Manning, Sebastian River middle school student developed cancer in his right leg and had it amputated in 2009 and thinking he could never swim again he started to give up on his dream of swimming with dolphins, but with the help of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and a donated prosthesis, Tyler's dream came true when he swam with dolphins while on a week-long Carnival cruise in Mexico.

The special waterproof prosthesis cost between $5,000 and $8,000 and was made by Mike Hudak from Advanced Prosthetics and Orthotics in Orlando.

"I used to work in New Jersey where we had a lot of surfers," said Hudak. "But this prosthetic is different because it flexes at the ankle and if he wants to go scuba diving, he can even attach a fin"

On this occasion Tyler didn’t scuba dive but he was able to swim in the ocean and the ship's pool.

"It was pretty cool, I was able to swim with the dolphins, and they pushed me along on a boogie board. I danced with them, and hugged them i had a great time." said Tyler

The Dolphin wasn’t the only excursion the family enjoyed.
"Carnival went out their way for us" Tonya manning explained "they told us to pick whatever we wanted to do in each port and they would make all of the arrangements. we also had a behind the scenes tour of the ship, we met all the dancers, toured the kitchen and met the captain.




Tyler enjoyed the week long Western Caribbean cruise with his 16 year old sister, Kayla and his parents Tonya and Belen Manning.

Belden, Tyler's dad said that "it was a great stress reliever for all of us after the past few years, Carnival took great care of us and Make A Wish Foundation made Tyler's wish come true. That’s what really matters."

According to MiamiHerald.com Tyler was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer in the soft tissue's that invades the tendons, joints and muscles in between bones, in January 2009, after enduring extensive chemotherapy treatments that year, teh cancer still managed to make its way to Tyler’s bone marrow, forcing doctors at Shands Hospital in Gainesville to amputate his leg below the knee. He will return to Shands this month for further tests to see if he remains cancer-free.




Was you on this cruise? Have you met Tyler?