LAS VEGAS (April 20, 2009) – It's anchors away for 10-year-old Brianna! On Saturday, April 25, she and her family will be pirated away to the Caribbean on a Disney Cruise – her dream come true.

Brianna's wish was granted through a partnership between UnitedHealthcare and the Make-A-Wish Foundation^®.

Brianna suffers from a complex seizure disorder. When she was told her wish would be granted, she gave serious thought about what she wanted. Brianna – whose favorite Disney character is Ariel from The Little Mermaid – decided that an ocean adventure was just the thing. With some help from Disney, she will set sail on the Disney Wonder for various ports of call, including Disney's own island, Castaway Cay. There she will be able to choose from a variety of shore excursions: swimming with dolphins, snorkeling, parasailing or looking for Ariel under the sea from a glass-bottom boat.

To help Brianna get her sea legs, she and her family will be swept away Thursday afternoon, April 23, to the Treasure Island (TI) Hotel and Casino via limousine, courtesy of Bell Trans. At 3 p.m., UnitedHealthcare's community relations team will escort Brianna and her family to a special VIP area under the bow of the massive Sirens' ship in front of the TI. There TI pirates and sirens will give her a special buccaneer welcome complete with her own pirate gear custom-designed by the TI costume shop.

In addition, Peter O'Neill, senior vice president of Public and Community Relations for UnitedHealthcare of Nevada, will present Brianna with a treasure chest filled with bounty for her voyage: toys and games for the long flight and Little Mermaid-themed items she can use on sand and sea when she arrives.

"Brianna's wish is a wonderful example of the simple joys and magic that a wish can provide a child," said Karen Iglesias, executive director of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Nevada. "We are grateful for UnitedHealthcare's tremendous support in granting the wishes of deserving children like Brianna. In addition to generous financial sponsorship for this wish, UnitedHealthcare employees enthusiastically planned this special event to meet Brianna and her family and send them off in style.

"In 2009, we anticipate granting 150 wishes for local children, and these wishes are made possible by the compassion and generosity of local businesses and individuals. We appreciate UnitedHealthcare's help in sharing the power of a wish."

In 2007, UnitedHealthcare's parent company, UnitedHealth Group, partnered with the Make-A-Wish Foundation as a National Wish Champion-level sponsor pledging $4.5 million over three years to the Make-A-Wish Foundation nationwide, with the intention of granting some 600 very special wishes through the UnitedHealth Group Wishes program to children battling life-threatening illness. Brianna is the second child in Nevada to receive a UnitedHealthcare wish.

"We at UnitedHealthcare are excited that our employees in Nevada have the opportunity to be part of the UnitedHealth Group Wishes program with our northern and southern Nevada Make-A-Wish chapters," said Jon Bunker, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of Nevada. "Our partnership with the Make-A-Wish Foundation reflects our commitment to support the health and well-being of the communities where our employees live and work. All of us at UnitedHealthcare hope Brianna and her family have an amazing adventure in the Caribbean."

About the Make-A-Wish Foundation
The Make-A-Wish Foundation grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. Born in the 1980 when a group of volunteers helped a young boy fulfill he dream of becoming a police officer, the Foundation is now the largest wish-granting charity in the world, with 65 chapters in the United States and its territories. With the help of generous donors and more than 25,000 volunteers, the Make-a-Wish Foundation grants a wish every 40 minutes and has granted more than 174,000 wishes in the U.S. since its inception. The Southern Nevada chapter was established in 1996 and has granted more than 1,000 wishes for local children.

About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services to individuals, public sector employers and businesses of all sizes, including more than half of the Fortune 100 companies. The company organizes access to quality, affordable health care services on behalf of more than 26 million individual consumers, contracting directly with more than 580,000 physicians and care professionals and 4,900 hospitals to offer them broad, convenient access to services nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.