Making Dying Wishes Come True: The 8 Top Celebrity Dream Makers of 2013

If a dream is a wish your heart makes, a dream come true must be a wish a pop star grants.

2013 was filled with plenty of breakups, selfies, drama and twerking in the lives of our favorite celebs, yes. But it was also a year bursting with great acts of kindness from many of the famous faces we've grown to know so well.

Here is our definitive list of the stars who took time to grant some pretty big wishes in 2013.

1. Beyon: Queen Bey shocked the world with her surprise video album release on December 13, but the singer has a heart just as big as her mega talent. On Christmas Eve, a video was posted to her YouTube page showing the pop star with Taylon Davis, a 12-year-old girl who has an inoperable tumor on her brain and just one wish: to dance with Beyoncé. And her dream came true when the Make-A-Wish Foundation hooked Taylon up with the Grammy-winning singer so they could share a rendition of "Survivor" at a Las Vegas show earlier this month. However, this isn't the singer's first good deed. In November, she sang a duet of "Irreplaceable" with a blind fan in Perth, Australia.

 

2. Taylor Swift: Delaney "Laney" Ann Brown passed away from complications from leukemia on Christmas, but just five days earlier, on her 8th birthday, the West Reading, Pennsylvania, native had a huge wish granted by the area's most famous alum, Swift. The "Red" singer, who grew up in nearby Reading, called her young fan via Facetime so that they could see one another. "Laney lit up and had a huge smile on her face," a Facebook post about the encounter details. "We will hold that memory in our hearts forever."

3. Justin Bieber: He may have made news almost exclusively this year for his slip-ups, but the "Believe" star did do some major good in 2013 as well. In August, the Biebs granted his 200th Make-A-Wish Foundation request, breaking the organization's record. His milestone wish recipient was 8-year-old Annalysha Brown-Rafanan, who was suffering from a life-threatening liver condition and merely wanted to meet the pop singer. Bieber also recognized the passing of Jake, another of his wishful fans, who he'd spent a day playing hockey with in 2011. "The world lost a great kid but I'm grateful I got to meet him. RIP Jake," he tweeted in November.


4. Aaron Paul: The "Breaking Bad" actor is really just a big sweetheart. While filming the movie "Need for Speed" in Georgia, the "Breaking Bad star struck up a friendship with Austin Childers, 22, who was battling a rare mitochondrial disease, and visited him multiple times at his hospital in Macon. He even regularly talks to fans on the phone (after tweeting the number to a pay phone or soliciting their numbers on Twitter). "I get to meet really interesting, cool, fun people," he said in April. Making wishes come true actually became something of a mainstay on his AMC show. The popular program's creator, Vince Gilligan, and other star Bryan Cranston developed a close relationship with terminally ill 16-year-old super fan, Kevin Cordasco, who died of cancer in the spring, dedicating the final season's premiere to his memory.

5. Gisele Bundchen: The supermodel (and mom) surprised 15-year-old Karina Xavier, who is battling bone cancer, with a visit on December 26 to help the young fashion blogger, who is also a Brazil native. "You are a warrior, an inspiration of positivity and courage," Bundchen posted on her Instagram page. "I will be praying for you. Sending you love and light always."

6. Dame Helen Mirren: The acclaimed actress gamely reinhabited one of her most famous characters: Queen Elizabeth II to grant a terminally ill fan's wish of having tea with the Queen. After learning 10-year-old Oliver Burton, suffering from spinal cancer, would not be able to meet the real Queen of England, Mirren invited the young boy to see her London play, "The Audience," in which she plays the monarch, and met him in character for tea after the show — even granting him a faux knightship during the May visit.

7. Katy Perry: The singer recently reached out to Olivia Wise, a fan whose cover of "Roar" went viral, before her untimely death from brain cancer. "I saw your video and I was very moved, and you sounded great for being in the studio and making it your wish to record that song," Perry said in her own video recording in October. That same month, the songstress also made another little lady's dreams come true when she dueted her uplifting anthem "Firework" with Jodi DiPiazza, a young autistic girl at Comedy Central's "Night of Too Many Stars" benefit.

8) Lady Gaga: Mother Monster canceled the end of her Born This Way Ball tour earlier this year to undergo emergency hip surgery, but the singer made sure one special fan still got to see her idol in person. Gaga pulled out of her February Chicago show, but after hearing from a local radio station that terminally ill 5-year-old Kayleigh Gurzynski had traveled from Wisconsin for the concert without knowing about its cancellation, Gaga set up a meeting with the young girl to make sure her wish came true.

Here's hoping 2014 will be filled with even more stories of dream weaving!