This mother’s day swap buying slippers for making a donation in your mum’s name.
The most important gift you can really give on Mother’s Day is the gift of support for another mum in times of distress or emergency care.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia relies on donations to get Aussies in remote areas to medical care and treatment.
Take it from me, you don’t have to live outback to be a patient – you could be travelling through or working in a regional area or you could have children in need of specialist hospital care.
Not everyone is 1/2 hour from a major hospital or even two hours from a GP.
Life could change in an instant and it has for some mums who have been confronted with the most horrible of situations. Setting foot in a Flying Doctor plane has saved their child’s or their own life.
The Gift of Support is a charitable way to celebrate life and support Aussie mums and bubs in the bush faced with medical challenges, while honouring your own mother.
Whether it’s a premature arrival in the most remote of areas, or a seriously ill toddler needing emergency care from specialist staff – the Flying Doctor have been there when Aussie mums like Debbie Storey have needed them most.
Debbie is mum to toddler Hallie who 4 years ago was born in a small Western Australian town with her arteries flowing the wrong way. Without open heart surgery she had only weeks to live. The nearest specialists were 3000 km’s away in Melbourne.
I chatted to Debbie on the phone about her unexpected Flying Doctor journey:
It was shocking and heart-breaking – just a living nightmare.”
Debbie recalls vividly that at just 11 days old her tiny baby was flown to Melbourne from Western Australia in a fully equipped Royal Flying Doctor plane with expert medical crew.
How do you thank someone for that? We will be forever grateful to the RFDS and its supporters. They gave us the gift of hope.”
Hallie is a healthy, happy 3 1/2 year old today, with a surgery scar she calls her “brave”. Her family point to other Flying Doctor planes they see and tell her “there’s a little baby in there like you being taken care of by nurses and doctors.”
She’s a pretty cute unit who is treasured by her family.
(Hallie as a happy, healthy toddler )
The Flying Doctor saved baby Hallie’s life, and it continues to help other children in remote Australia. As a charity, it needs the support of Australian’s to continue to offer this vital service.
This Mother’s Day you can purchase a Mother’s Day card for $30 or make a donation in lieu of a gift to send a message of hope and help to mums who call on the Flying Doctor services.
Not only is the card personalised with your own greeting, it also shares the story of how precious cargo like baby Hallie is made comfortable with the donation you’ve given on her behalf.
That sure beats slippers!
Honour your mum by donating in her name today at https://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/vic/