Hope Air keeps residents close to heart and health care
“Hope Air has allowed me to live where my heart wants to be, without sacrificing quality health care,” says Creston resident Danielle. “Hope Air is an absolute gift.”
This highlights a conundrum that too many residents in the Columbia Basin face. If they require specialized medical services, do they have to move away from their small or rural communities? Or do they have to burden themselves financially to travel far to get the necessary help?
Cue Hope Air!
Hope Air believes all Canadians should have access to the health care they need, no matter where they live, including in the Basin. They have been providing support to Basin residents for nearly 25 years and have assisted patients across the country in need with over 170,000 travel arrangements since their inception in 1986.
The Trust supports efforts that help Basin residents address community challenges and opportunities. This emphasis has created the ideal runway for both organizations to take flight in a joint effort to help locals in the region, a partnership that started in 2014.
The demand for medically necessary travel has been on an uphill trajectory since the end of the pandemic. In 2023, for example, residents of the Basin used the service at an increased frequency of 176 per cent, totalling 1,860 travel arrangements—and estimates have the partnership poised to assist hundreds of more travel arrangements for Basin residents over the next three years.
Meet Curtis
Meet Curtis, a logger, firefighter and community-minded individual who lives in Jaffray. In 2012, he began to develop horrible headaches and loss of feeling, later confirmed to be from a series of strokes. Unclear as to the cause of the strokes, Curtis’ neurological disorder forced him to seek treatment in Vancouver.
“It’s hard. You can’t afford to travel regularly and be away from family. It’s stressful for all of us,” says Curtis.
Then the tight-knit family received another blow with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis for Curtis’s wife.
Fortunately, Hope Air was available for both family members, and the flights to treatment have been pivotal for them both.
Meet Catherine
Catherine has put on many kilometres in what has turned out to be a battle against a rare form of sinus cancer.
Originally from Fernie, Catherine’s fight began with frequent trips to Calgary for a multitude of procedures. After being told that she could no longer access care in Alberta, she relocated to Cranbrook in 2017 to be closer to a regional hospital and airport, and began taking trips to Vancouver—which quickly began chewing through her savings.
Fortunately, she then heard about Hope Air. In 2023, Hope Air provided her with two flights that eased the challenges involved with her medical journey.
“The biggest thing Hope Air has done for me is that they’ve taken the stress out of cancer,” says Catherine. “For a cancer patient, it is never a short journey.”
Meet Danielle
Since the 1980s, Danielle has lived with cervical dystonia: a debilitating condition that causes involuntary muscle contractions. For a while, treatment relieved the symptoms of this Creston resident. But then, in 2008, they returned.
“I needed to reconnect with the Movement Disorders Clinic in Vancouver,” says Danielle. “My disability had forced my exit from the workforce, which severely affected my income.”
Having now flown with Hope Air 25 times, Danielle has grown to greatly appreciate the place she calls home, as much as she cherishes what Hope Air has been able to do for her. She can’t say it enough: “Hope Air has allowed me to live where my heart wants to be, without sacrificing quality health care. Hope Air is an absolute gift.”
