Flying for Life - Limpopo

It can get quite hard to realise the affect that your actions have when you repeat them often.

We have flown in support of MAF and Flying for Life many times the past few years and each time is always a big day out. The paperwork and flight plans are filed in the preceding week and we often take the aircraft to a local airport with runway lights the day before and fill it up with fuel. The day of the flight I get up just after 03:30 to drive to the airport where we do pre-flight checks before taking off in the dark, bound for Johannesburg. In the depth of winter (July) we land in Jhb just before the sun rises.

 

There we meet our passengers, load their supplies and can be on the ground for as little as 20 mins before setting off once again for Thohoyandou in the Limpopo province, almost two hours flying away. Once there, we unload before an hours drive to the hospital the team are working in.

There the patients are already waiting, usually prepped and ready for their life changing surgery that will restore sight to their eyes. This will not only affect them of course, but countless others in the communities such as families that rely on them to look after children while they are out at work or tending the fields.

The first lady was 95 and lived only three doors down from the hospital

Last Saturday we were again flying a team of nurses, doctors and surgeons to this hospital. Unfortunately eye issues are not seen as a priority by the department of health, after all, no one dies from blindness. This is reflected by the fact that in Limpopo, a province six times the size of Wales and with a population of 5 million people, there are only two hospitals equipped to offer eye cataract surgery. Our efforts to take specialists to Thohoyandou increased this number to three, but only of course for one day per month. The other sad fact is that people that were seen by our team were diagnosed as needing the treatment in January of 2017!

Proff uses a Schiotz Tonometer to measure eye pressure

The team are dedicated and compassionate and work tirelessly from the minute they get there till the last possible moment before we have to drive back to the airstrip in order to safely get airborne before the sun sets. This ensures that the maximum number of people have the chance to benefit from their expertise.

Fortunately I was able to use a private room at the hospital to get some rest before the long trek back. Within minutes of taking off it was dark, but the clouds that had made the morning trip up interesting, had cleared and there were no delays to our landing back in Jhb. As the team began their drive home, I refuelled the plane and then set back off into the night for the last 1h30 flight to where I had begun the day, or at least to the local airport with runway lights, where I put the plane to bed before driving up the hill to arrive at my house and a very welcome cup of coffee just before 22:30.

The bright lights of Jhb from 11000'

So, 'a grand day out' as Wallace and Gromit would say, but quite insignificant when compared to the extra lease of life given to the many people whose lives have been changed, and the many more who will benefit in the rural communities from their renewed sight.

Thank you

Paul and Cathy