SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) -A child had to choose between going to the place of his dreams and meeting his hero.

In the first year of his life, Lauren Smith said her son was diagnosed with aplastic anemia.

"He was healthy, he didn't have any physical abnormalities," Smith said. "He just didn't produce platelets and red blood cells." 

Gabriel went from getting blood transfusions every month to every two weeks. According to Smith, that's when the family decided to look into bone marrow transplants. 

"It was emotional, because we didn't know where it was going to end up. We didn't know if it was going to get worse, to where he couldn't be cured," she said. "We didn't know if he was going to get better, or if there were any options to get better, until we heard about the bone marrow transplant."

Halfway across the world, in Germany, Gabriel had a bone marrow match.

"Dennis was a 10-for-10 match," Smith said. "He matched all the DNA markers they were looking for."

At just 14 months old, Gabriel had a successful bone marrow transplant surgery.

"If Dennis hadn't donated the marrow, or we couldn't find a match through the bone marrow registry, Gabriel wouldn't be here," Smith said.

Six years later, the Make-A-Wish Foundation wanted to grant Gabriel a wish.

"His wish was first, to take Dennis to meet Mickey Mouse," Smith said. "Well, they couldn't do both. They said, what would you like to do, and Gabriel said meet his donor."

The Smith family still hopes to go to Disney World and take Dennis with them. A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family raise enough money to get there.

"Donors are more important than going somewhere you really like," Gabriel said.

Now Gabriel is a healthy 7-year-old. He wants to encourage everyone to sign up on the bone marrow registry.

"Sign up, so other kids can be healthy," Gabriel said.