Father’s Day 2019: Uniting Sandra’s Family

Sometimes the flight of compassion recipient is a father, or is going to see their father for a final farewell. Each story is different, as you can see in last year’s Give a Mile Father’s Day blog.

In this case it was Sandra who had received the grim medical diagnosis, and her dream was to see the extended family she had never before met, including a half-brother, in Ireland. This touched several fathers in Sandra’s expanded family.

Sandra was facing another round of cancer treatment and applied to Give A Mile for a flight to meet her brother and family in Ireland. Through the generosity of individual donors and of Mother’s/Father’s Day campaigns sponsor AirStart, who have a passion for all things aviation, Sandra was able to travel from Canada to Glendalough, south of Dublin. There she met her “new” family from Ireland and some who had traveled even from Australia. By the end of the trip Sandra had met and expanded her family by: 3 uncles, 4 aunts, and 14 first-cousins – many of them fathers! The positive emotions helped Sandra to face an MRI, radiography mask creation, oncologist visit, and IV treatments in the days following her return to Canada.

I cannot thank Give A Mile enough for their gracious gift… not of reuniting a family, but uniting a family.

– Sandra (lower left)

Gifts of unused loyalty points (Aeroplan, Starwood, Marriott and Amex Rewards, etc.), and monetary or volunteer-time offerings are easily done through the Give A Mile website DONATE NOW page. These will help us make our target to raise funds and points for 20 flights of compassion during Mother’s/Father’s Day Campaigns 2019. Fully 100% of funds and points are applied to flights of compassion and related taxes/fees for specific flight stories or in the general pool to be applied against any flight.

Support the Give A Mile 2019 Father’s Day Campaign. Help more loved ones share final farewell and create lasting memories through your generous giving. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to see year ‘round events and flight of compassion celebrations. A 100% volunteer-driven organization, Give A Mile could not work without the help of others. We want to award as many flights as possible this year, so even if you’re just posting a message about us, we are grateful.