Recently I touched on organizations that offer financial assistance for cancer patients to help pay for their medications. Here we'll look at air travel assistance.
If you have been diagnosed with cancer, and you decide you want to be treated for the disease (some people choose not to be treated, the choice is everyone's to make freely and independently) one of the many obstacles you will face will be transportation.
Yes, transportation. Getting from your home, your place of comfort, to infusion clinics, hospitals, other treatment facilities, and of course to the waiting rooms in doctors' offices (hint: do NOT touch the arm rests in health care facilities; they are as crawling with bacteria and other nasty germs as the bathroom door handles on airplanes and the shopping carts at your local grocery store).
Having to go back and forth for this scan and that blood draw, this chemotherapy infusion and that radiotherapy treatment, will begin to weigh heavy. Fortunately, there are groups and organizations in this world who understand that, and who try to do their best to help patients avoid missing important appointments.
For ground transportation, the American Cancer Society runs its Road to Recovery service in which volunteers drive vans to pick up and drop off patients at their local hospitals and clinics. Another option is to check out your local United Way.
But what if you need a stem cell transplantation at City of Hope in Duarte California and you don't live near Duarte (which is outside of Los Angeles)?
Fortunately, and to the great credit of humankind, there are a number of organizations who facilitate air transportation for patients who need to get to places that are too far away to reach by van. These groups are composed partly of pilots who volunteer their time, their skills, and sometimes their own planes, to help needy patients get to where they need to go. Below is a starter list of such organizations.
Air Transportation Charities
Perhaps the first place to stop is the ACA, or Air Care Alliance. Calling themselves the "voice of public benefit flying" you can send an inquiry to several dozen groups all at once if you need free air transportation in order to receive cancer care (as well as other types of care) that are not close to you.
The same is true for the Air Charity Network. They've been doing this for 25 years and can quickly determine whether or not they can help you.
There is also the Angel Airline Samaritans. Last year they boasted of having "provided 319 commercial airline tickets" to patients in order to ensure that no cancer patient is denied access to distant, specialized medical care.
Lifeline Pilots has a simple mission: to facilitate FREE transportation through volunteer pilots for financially distressed children and adults with medical and humanitarian needs." Since 1981 they have facilitated over 75,000 flights for patients who need treatment in distant locales but can't get there any other way. They're located out of Peoria International Airport, but they have a "true nationwide reach."
How about taking an unused seat aboard a private jet? Cancer patients fly free aboard private jets when seats are available, and that service can be coordinated through the Corporate Angel Network.
Finally, check out Patient Airlift Services, or PALS, if you live in or nearby the Northeast region of the United States.
