COMMUNITY GIFT: WINGS4KIDS

Having a child diagnosed with a serious medical condition that may require treatment for months or several years is traumatising enough but imagine if it also meant hours or days of travel just to access treatment. Wings4Kidz provides free regional flight services for children and their families to lessen their travel burden.

Over the last decade Wings4Kids has grown from helping to support just a few families through their treatment journey to helping 150 families across NSW on a regular basis.

And it all started from the Late Mail Postie Bike Ride which is held in Mudgee each year.

“About a decade ago Jason Turner decided to start a postie ride in Mudgee and called me to get involved,” explained Co-Founder Brendan Crane.

“When we started looking at charities we could support we were disappointed to find so much of their funding was absorbed by administration costs or wages.

“Then we met a beautiful little girl, Molly, who had retinal blastoma and a had to take a 13-hour train trip to get to and from Westmead Children’s Hospital for treatments. We wanted to help and thought we could provide a couple of flights to get her to treatment and that’s how Wings4Kids started.”

Since its inception the Late Mail Postie Bike Ride has raised nearly two million dollars for Wings4Kids and on the back of its continued success the Never Late Fe-mail Postie Bike Ride started three years ago. Brendan said the support for both has blown them away.

“Wings4Kidz is entirely run by volunteers and a hundred percent of the money raised goes towards keeping the flights going.

“Some of these kids have had serious operations like transplants or they are going through chemotherapy. A one-hour flight isn’t just making it more comfortable for them, it’s safer and reduces some of the financial pressure for families. We also do everything we can to make the trip as special as possible, giving them the rockstar treatment and going above and beyond to keep them smiling.”

Brendan said they would never have been able to help so many families without the fantastic support they receive.

“Amanda Dreves who also co-founded the charity is a pharmacist and she gives up two of her working days to help collect the families from the airport and drive them to the hospital. Jason has given so much to make the rides a success every year. He works at Ulan Mine and that first year a good third of our riders were also from the mine. Ulan also has been fantastic with the support they give us. Ken Ross from Mudgee has also done so much, even shutting down his business for a week every year to get behind the ride.

“Then there is Matt Hall Racing. One of our volunteers was doing flights at Lake Macquarie which is Matt Hall’s home base and she bumped into him while wearing a Wings4Kidz shirt. He asked her what it was all about and it took him all of three minutes to get on board.

“I thank all of them and everyone else who has gotten behind Wings4Kids year after year.

“Everything we do comes down to volunteers and while we are helping to make a difference in the lives of the families, they’ve made a huge difference in our lives as well. So if you want to join the Wings4Kids family we would love to hear from you!”