How Little Wings transformed life for sick kids in regional areas

Australian Aviation Awards winner Little Wings has revolutionised treatment for seriously ill children outside of major cities by flying them into town for treatment. Casey Martin speaks to its CEO, and those it helps, to tell its story.

When children face challenges far more grown up than they are, the reaction of the adults around them is to relieve the hardship they face, often carrying as much as they can on their own shoulders. Fully relieving the challenge is hard to do on one’s own. Libby, the mother of a darling six-year-old named Winnie, has been carrying the weight of her illness for some time. Diagnosed at birth with serious gut and digestive issues that needed specialised treatment, surgery and intervention from when she was two, Libby was worried that she wouldn’t be able to continue to afford to take her daughter to and from the hospital. You see, they live in a country town called Coonabarabran, a long while away from Westmead Children’s Hospital and without a local paediatrician.