Would you prefer a 90-minute flight or a six-hour car journey with a child in pain to see a doctor?
For families living in regional and rural Australia, this is a real-life scenario, and the difference is life-changing.
Little Wings is a volunteer-powered charity that flies children who need medical treatment and their parents from regional areas in NSW, Queensland and the ACT to major cities – every single day of the year.
Six-year-old Eleanor Blake has Perthes disease, a rare condition where the femoral head of her hip has disintegrated. Diagnosed at two and a half years old, she endures unpredictable pain that can leave her unable to walk. Living five to six hours’ drive from Sydney makes accessing specialist care a constant challenge.
Little Wings enables Eleanor and her mother to travel to and from Sydney in a day, allowing her father, Tom, to go to work with minimal disruption to the family routine.
The first trip to Sydney by car was a challenge. With Eleanor's six-month-old brother Ben screaming for nine hours, both children and the parents arrived exhausted and stressed. Now, Little Wings transforms that ordeal into a calm 90-minute flight.
Little Wings operates five aircraft – four Beechcraft Barons and one Navajo – servicing regional and remote areas across New South Wales, ACT, Queensland, and beyond. The organisation is 90 per cent volunteer-led, with 100 per cent of pilots and drivers donating their time.
"As a Little Wings pilot, it's more than just flying a plane," says Brett Johnson, Head of Flying Operations at Little Wings. "You're in the role for a particular reason and that's to take care of these families and make sure that they are comfortable and stress-free."
The experience is carefully designed around each family’s needs. The plane cabins are deep-cleaned after every flight because 95 per cent of the children are immunocompromised. Handmade blankets are washed after every use and keep passengers warm in the air, and Little Wings provides wheelchairs for families that need them.
Clare Pearson, CEO of Little Wings, says each flight costs $1,500 to deliver, and explains how Little Wings participates in the Return and Earn program with various schools and community partners collecting bottles to recycle and help fund fuel costs. “In the past year, this campaign alone fuelled over 200 missions,” explains Clare.
In addition to medical flights, Little Wings runs Medical Wings, flying specialist doctors to regional areas for clinics that can see up to 25 children per day. Last year, they supported over 5,100 children across regional Australia.
"The 90-minute plane ride versus a six-hour car drive makes it so much better," says Catherine, Eleanor’s mother. "Eleanor is not asking when we are there, how much longer, how much pain she's in. It's really good to get up and down (to Sydney) very fast."
The impact of Little Wings extends beyond individual families.
While Little Wings' operational budget is $6 million per year, the economic impact is over $90 million, reducing taxpayer costs while rebalancing healthcare inequities.
"What we want to do is make sure that children just because of their postcode or their circumstance are not missing out on healthcare," says Clare, "and for every child (to have) the opportunity to thrive and seek the medical treatment for them to reach their full potential."
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