North Cariboo Residents Invited To Hope Air Event

Hope Air is holding an event at the airport in Quesnel this Saturday.

It takes place at two o’clock and as Alanna Scott, Vice President of Hope Air explains, it is a kick off to a major fundraising event called Give Hope Wings-Northwest expedition.

“Their goal is to raise 250-thousand dollars for flights and they’re almost to their target, and then their other goal is to let patients, who need access to medical care far from home, know that Hope Air exists and is available to support their travel needs.”

Scott says the pilots will be flying through northern Canada, and around the perimeter of Alaska, raising money to continue to provide free access to travel for patients who need to fly for medical care far from their home.

She says people can have pictures taken with the pilots and their planes.

Here, Scott explains how Hope Air got started 33 years ago…

“It was started by a nurse who worked in a cancer clinic who witnessed patients who were traveling for more than 12 hours on the bus to get to their cancer appointment and then just hop right back on that bus to get back home. She saw that patients needed a much better way to travel to medical care, and what she did is, with a friend who worked in the airline industry, they formed a charity that’s now known as Hope Air, and that charity within the last 33 years has proved over a 142 thousand free travel arrangements for people who need access to medical care far from home, and could not otherwise afford to get there.”

Scott says Quesnel has been very active on this front.

She says the Friends of Hope Air, a local group of volunteers, helped to provide flights to 99 people last year to get the medical care they needed.