Lifting Horizons

This evening I was invited to attend fly2help's Gala dinner at the Royal Air Force Club in Piccadilly London. My invite was a thank you for the voluntary work I've done for the aviation charity over the past few years and the eight or more Air Smiles Days I'll be running this year for people in need of escaping adversity in their lives through the wonder of flight.

I was truly touched to be attending the event despite suffering with a crushing headache all day, only just making my train thanks to a conference call, having to do my hair and make up on the journey up and getting changed into my dress on arrival.

One of the highlights of the evening was a speech by charity Patron Joy Lofthouse, a 92 year old Air Transport Auxiliary pilot, who relayed us with tales of her flying escapades from over 75 years ago. Joy learnt to fly before she could drive a car at just 15 years old and by the end of the war had flown 18 different types of aircraft.

Joy said it's nonsense that she needed courage to fly and that she was too young to know any better! "Now I'm old I need more courage than I ever needed during the war just to face the challenges of each day!" she said.

"Before ferrying a new aircraft type you had a few minutes to read a little bible of 'pilots notes' with all the key information on the aircraft but actually all you needed was the take off, landing and stalling speed.

"When you took off in a Spitfire you left the top open then once you got up to speed you closed the canopy. One time I was taking off, went to close the canopy and the canopy flew off! I was sure they were all saying 'that stupid woman' back on the ground as I flew the circuit and landed. On my return I looked at the engineering notes and saw it repeatedly said 'canopy failure' and 'canopy fault' so I got away with that one."

"So you see it was quite an uneventful war for me but it was the best two years of my life. All women in the war did something. Some screwed in rivets in a factory and they didn't even realise the significance of what they were doing. But they all did something and that is what is important."

This comment reminds me of what I say to my volunteers when they say "Oh you don't need to thank me, I did nothing really. I just checked the paperwork," or they say: "I just brought the cake," or "But I just took a few photos!"

The point is that every little part of 'just doing' makes so much difference to someone's day. A moment in time they and their family will remember forever, even if their forever is only a short time.

I am so grateful to be part of this amazing charity and I hope my volunteers know how much they mean to me. Now I must get organising the next Air Smiles Day on Friday. Watch out volunteers, I'm on a mission!