Welcome To The Wingman Bus!

Wednesday
Project Wingman is a charity started in March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, as a way for airline crew to support healthcare workers, mostly at the frontline in fighting the pandemic. The initiative was the brainchild of some furloughed airline crew members, and they were invited to set up lounges in various NHS hospitals. I wanted to get involved right away, but sadly the Royal Berkshire hospital in Reading wasn’t able to provide space.

More recently the project bought and kitted out a double decker bus and hit the road - providing a 2-week mobile lounge service to hospitals around the country. (And a second bus has just been bought). This is particularly useful as many of the static lounges are closing as hospitals are opening up for the full range of services and no longer have the room to keep a permanent lounge.

I got a call a few days ago because my name was still on the list to volunteer, and I was told that the bus was coming to Reading! I was delighted to get involved. Today was my first shift this week. We’re still not at the main hospital as there were ‘parking issues’, but there is another hospital on the west side of Reading and they were happy to provide a spot for us.

Although I’ve not actually been furloughed, I’ve not been needed at work since early January, so I was delighted to get my uniform back on this morning. I worked with three others today, furloughed or recently retired crew members from other airlines. It was great to be serving ‘passengers’ again, providing some free coffees/teas/cold drinks and an array of snacks. Besides the refreshments, it’s a place for the NHS staff to relax and get away from the busy office or ward, enjoy some peace and fresh air and have a chat if they want to. And those of us who are crew members enjoyed the time together, regardless of what airline we work for - we always feel a unique camaraderie.

You can read more about the charity here.

Writing this several days later (catching up as always with my blips!), I did three other shifts on subsequent days. You MAY have seen us on the news. The BBC turned up on Thursday morning and we appeared on BBC South Today on their lunchtime and evening news. I wasn’t there for the filming but it was still great to see the project featured in that way!