Being sick is bad enough, but imagine having to travel off and onto the Island regularly for treatment. The logistics, time, and money can be immensely stressful. A remarkable group of volunteers in the nonprofit organization Angel Flight NE is bridging the gap between distance and medical care with their extraordinary services, so patients can focus on what’s important — getting well.
“We’re providing flights of healing and hope,” says development director Barbara Sica. Founded in 1996, more than 400 Angel Flight NE volunteer pilots have flown over 108,000 patients to 750 medical centers throughout the U.S., logging in some 16 million miles … all for free.
Elizabeth Eisenhauer, who first contacted Angel Flight NE in 2016, has been on 51 of Angel Flight NE’s 12,000 Vineyard missions: “It’s been life-changing for me having a cancer diagnosis. There is so much about it that is quite hard. Angel Flight NE took the edge off.”
As it is for any patient, her first step was to call for an intake. Sica explains the organization’s commitment to personal service: “It’s nice to be able to talk to someone on the phone because they’ve been diagnosed with a disease, and they don’t know what to do about getting to treatment. We take all their information and work with their medical team to get waivers to travel.” There are no requirements regarding diagnosis or financial status. The only one is that a patient be medically stable.
Angel Flight NE obtains pilots for all the patient’s appointments. These remarkable aviators donate their planes, time, fuel, and most of all, their compassion to ensure the patients get where they have to. “We also have a strong relationship with commercial partners such as Cape Air and JetBlue, which provide unlimited seats on their aircraft,” Sica explains. “They move mountains to make sure our patients can get where they need to.” These partnerships allow Angel Flight NE to get you wherever you need to fly in the U.S.
Sometimes the planes land in small municipal airports, but they also fly into Logan. “We laugh, because the air traffic controllers will stop the big planes for this little one because it’s an Angel Flight NE. They give us first priority, since the patient has a timeline,” says Sica.
Eisenhauer reflects, “Just being in the air helped provide some relief. It’s quite lovely to be on a private plane over the Island. In those moments of sadness or fear on my way to a procedure, an important meeting, or leaving from getting some difficult news, being in the clouds with a stranger who had given his day to me would usher in lovely gratitude. I could escape the heaviness of what was going on by just being up in the sky. It was very healing.”
Sica explains, “We’re constantly recruiting pilots to join our volunteer corps. It’s a challenge, because more people who fly are aging out. It’s not a cheap hobby to have a plane. Many of our pilots are successful businesspeople from all walks of life who just want to give back, and love to fly. So what’s better? They do what they love, and give back at the same time.”
Once you land, you are met by their Earth Angels, the volunteers who donate their time to drive patients from the airports to the medical facilities and back. No cab, Uber, Lyft, or rental car is necessary. Eisenhauer is grateful for these drivers: “I was able to be mindless, because someone else was in charge. For me, being a type A personality and used to being in charge, that was a luxury I didn’t know I needed.”
Sica urges, “If a patient is diagnosed and needs to travel from the Vineyard, call us. People will say, ‘Well, it can’t be all free.’ Well, it is.” Angel Flight NE relies on corporate and private donations to ensure this remains the case: “A lot of patients have told us that if it hadn’t been for us, they would have succumbed to their illness. That’s heartbreaking to hear. No one should be denied access to medical care.”
Eisenhauer remarks, “Over the years, I’ve met so many pilots. I’ve asked many, ‘Why do you do this, giving me five, six, sometimes seven hours of your day, sometimes in rough weather and not great conditions?’ There they are on cold, blustery days, standing on the tarmac waiting for me.” She discovered, “Most of them have been impacted by cancer in some way, and it was an opportunity for them to give back. I’ve met some amazing people. And I’ve been able to take all the effort and stress I would have put into making those arrangements on the ferry and driving into so many other things to try and recover and heal.”
She adds, “I have grown more and more and more grateful for the role Angel Flights NE played in my healing. It’s been absolutely enormous.”
For more information, visit angelflightne.org, or call (978) 794-6868.
