Hope Air et Give Hope Wings apportent des soins intensifs aux communautés isolées

^{Written by Marilyn Staig and Lee Arsenault
Images courtesy of Marilyn Staig, Lee Arsenault, and Shutter Chronicles Photography}

Imagine you’re a 40-year-old woman, living in Hearst Ontario. You have limited financial means. You’ve just been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and the only treatment available is in Toronto, 930 km away – a 10 hour drive each way.

What help is available to you?

This where Hope Air comes in. Hope Air is a registered Canadian charity that provides free travel arrangements, including flights, accommodation, meals and ground transportation to people who require specialized health care far from home.  

In 2023 demand for Hope Air programs soared to an all-time high: 24,988 travel arrangements for almost 3,000 patients in 560 communities.  The need for this service keeps growing.  Health care in Canada is universal, but access to it is not. Flights include both commercial and privately owned personal aircrafts flown by volunteer pilots for Hope Air. The volunteer pilots fly mostly to small remote airports where commercial flights are not an option. This really emphasizes the value of small regional airports to their community. My husband Lee Arsenault is a volunteer pilot and has flown over 35 missions for Hope Air.

 

Give Hope Wings (GHW) is a flying expedition comprised of volunteer pilots who pay their own expenses to fly to various locations in Canada to raise awareness of Hope Air, and raise funds to support Hope Air. Since 2018, there has been one or more expeditions organized each year. This year, we were honoured to join Ed Johnston to organize and fly in the Give Hope Wings East expedition which launched on June 2 with 17 airplanes.

We started in Charlottetown, PEI for 2 nights. There was a launch breakfast that showcased a young mother whose child requires care in Halifax. She talked about how Hope Air came to their rescue with bridge passes, gas coupons and accommodation mitigating some of the already stressful life-threatening issues they were dealing with.

The launch was an enormous success attended by the CEO of Hope Air, Mark Rubinstein, the PEI Minister of Health, other local Hope Air patients, many supportive local residents, and lively entertainment by two talented Acadian musicians.

The group then flew on to Moncton, NB for 2 nights.  We were entertained by the tidal bore and local breweries and wineries.  At the airport, we gave a presentation to the local flying school who donated $3,000 to Hope Air!

Every flying day was preceded by pilot briefings addressing weather, route, destination procedures, etc. These collaborative sessions were invaluable to the group. Of course, the weather gods reared their ugly heads. From Moncton, most of the VFR pilots headed home to Ontario to avoid some nasty weather forming in the west.

The IFR pilots continued on the planned expedition route to Victoriaville, QB for one overnight and then on to Timmins, ON for the grand finale on June 7.

June 7 was officially proclaimed Hope Air Day by 25 Northern Ontario communities. This was recognized in Timmins with a special concert from a local country artist. The event was a huge success capped by messages from Mark Rubinstein, local politicians, and a mother with a heart wrenching story of her young son who needs ongoing specialized medical care in Toronto.

At all expedition stops, the airport staff and/or local flying club provided fantastic support and welcomed us with open arms.

There were two other GHW expeditions in June; one in the West and one in the Prairies.

The GHW East expedition alone raised over $130,000 for Hope Air. All expeditions together with a combination of sponsorships and pilot fundraising raised over $415,000!

Despite weather challenges, we all had so much fun on the GHW East expedition! To learn more or to donate to Give Hope Wings or to Hope Air, click here. If you want to join our merry band next year for GHW 2025, email us at lee@givehopewings.ca.