If it wasn't for Hope Air, life would be a lot tougher for eight-year-old Simon Brochu.
For the past six years he and his family have relied on the charity to pay for his flights down to Vancouver to get the surgery and followup he has needed to correct vision problems that left him without any depth of field.
"I can't say enough good things and thank you enough times because Hope Air quite literally saved my boy's sight," Brochu's mother, Nicole, said Friday during a media event at the Prince George Airport to announce additional funding from the provincial government for the service.
In one year alone, the Brochus took 11 flights between Prince George and Vancouver.
"My son needed surgery and I could not afford it," she said. "It was going to be the difference of having to not impose but ask family who had already done so much to help to pay for a flight, to pay for accommodations, to pay for food.
"And the fact that I found out about Hope Air - that's honestly what it gave us, hope."
The registered charity has proven effective enough that the provincial government has raised its commitment to $1.5 million a year, a 50-per-cent increase from what Hope Air received for 2014.
Last year, the Toronto-based charity arranged 5,098 flights around the province and by the end of this year, Hope Air executive director Doug Keller-Hobson expects to see 6,200 paid for.
"We very much see the demand coming and then work together in partnership and say 'how are we going to help these people?'" Keller-Hobson said. "And they step up. It's a model of a public-private partnership that I wish other provincial governments would embrace."
As of the end of September, the cost of 751 flights in and out of Prince George have been covered so far this year.
"Prince George to Vancouver is Hope Air's number one volume route in all of Canada," Keller-Hobson said.
Local MLAs Shirley Bond and Mike Morris announced the funding commitment.
"It's hard enough raising a family and facing medical circumstances no matter what your age is," Bond said. "But it's that much more complicated when you have to worry - and you literally worry - about how you are going to get your loved one to the kind of specialized services that they need."
The get support from Hope Air, a patient must demonstrate financial need, be a B.C. resident and have Medical Services Plan coverage. To find out more, visit www.hopeair.ca or call 1-877-346-HOPE (4673).
