Mother, Lindsie Grice, says she is blessed that she could call on the Angel Flight plane whose dedicated volunteer staff have carried Elvie and her mum to and from Kempsey to visit specialist hospitals.

Ms Grice says the service has been a life-saver.

“The pilots and ground angels are volunteers – they use their own planes or cars, their own time and their own money to help people like my daughter Elvie who live hundreds or even thousands of KM from their nearest specialists or hospitals,” Ms Grice said.

“I had heard of Angel Flight prior to Elvie’s accident when she fell from the change table when she was six months old and fractured her forehead, but I had always thought they only operated in places like the Northern Territory where it is extremely remote so I was surprised and pleased to find that my daughter Elvie could use such an amazing service.

Angel Flight is a charity that coordinates non-emergency flights to help country people trying to deal with the triple trouble of bad health, poor finances and daunting distances.

Many country people don’t know they can access Angel Flight services free of charge and are struggling to get to their city medical appointments.

All flights are completely free and involve patients travelling to medical facilities anywhere in Australia.

Angel Flight can coordinate flights for country people travelling to their city medical appointments as well as ground transport in the city from the airport to their medical facility and back to airport.

Patients of all ages needing medical treatment at destinations where other forms of transport are physically and emotionally taxing or unaffordable can access Angel Flight services.

Angel Flight can also transport blood and blood products and medical drugs to country people requiring these items.