Hawai'i patients get free flights

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer

A Big Island woman last week began catching free flights from Kailua, Kona to Hilo for a weekly chemotherapy session, making her the first in the state to use a volunteer air service put together by a Minnesota-based organization.

Cancer patient Jeannine Brown, left, gets a lift from pilot David Rudin from Kailua, Kona to Hilo for treatments. Photo courtesy of Barbara Clever

She said the company began signing up volunteer pilots in Hawai'i in July. They donate their service, fuel and other costs. Nationwide, nearly 1,500 pilots participate, she said.

Jeannine Brown, 48, of Kailua, Kona was diagnosed with breast cancer in November. Brown said her treatments aren't available in the West Hawai'i town and driving, catching a cab or a van leaves her with a five-hour round trip. "It's a long journey when you're not feeling well," she said.

Brown estimated that the whole trip, as much as 125 miles each way depending on the route, often took her 12 hours. She was paying $80 each way for a cab ride to Waimea, then catching a van for cancer patients from Waimea to Hilo.

Brown said she is very grateful that pilots Barbara Clever and David Radin, co-owners of a four-seater Piper Archer 3 aircraft, have signed up to be her pilots on the 50-minute flights.

The time savings will allow Brown to spend more time with her two school-age children. Besides the difficulty of driving herself to and from the appointments, she said she did not think her 17-year-old Toyota Tercel would have be able to make the trip on a regular basis.

She said she was surprised she couldn't get the treatment she needed closer to home. The American Cancer Society hooked her up with the air option.

"There is no flight to Hilo," she said, and bus service is limited and exhausting.

Clever said she and Radin heard about the organization a few months ago and signed up.

"We feel like it's a way to help people in the community that normally would have a harder time getting treatment," Clever said.

They are willing to try to arrange their schedule so they can help Brown and others.

"We were just waiting for a mission to come up," she said.

Clever and Radin usually fly the plane for business or pleasure trips to Honolulu and Maui, she said. She hopes others will sign up.

Buxa said the organization is looking for more volunteers, typically those who own or fly planes with two to six seats.

Although the organization is new to Hawai'i, they have been providing similar service in the other 49 states.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.