Months after lifesaving flight, Christine returns to RFDS
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Christine Cameron did not notice much about Rockhampton’s Royal Flying Doctor Service hangar the first time she visited, four months ago.
That’s because she was strapped into a stretcher, being transported to Brisbane for a life-saving heart operation.
“All I could see was the inside of the ambulance and then the sky,” she said.
On Tuesday, she got to see the RFDS operations from an entirely different perspective, having won a QSuper competition.
The initiative offered members a chance to see behind the scenes at Rockhampton’s RFDS hangar and patient transfer facilities next door.
She said it was “definitely weird” to drive to the hangar under her own steam, tour the plane, and watch the RFDS take off from the Rockhampton Airport.
“I’m claustrophobic and I hate flying, so the trip down to Brisbane was a bit stressful, but the crew put me at ease,” she said.
“Worse was the commercial flight back to Rockhampton when we ran into storms.”
Ms Cameron was born in Rockhampton and worked away in the Northern Territory until she returned in 1997.
Soon after that, her father was also flown to Brisbane on a RFDS flight.
With both of them now well, Ms Cameron wanted to thank the RFDS staff and encourage people to donate to the good cause.
“I’d like the people of Queensland to donate whatever they can to keep (the RFDS) in the air,” she said.
