Flying for Hope: How Aviation is Saving Lives Across Canada

In part two of The Open Skies Podcast series on Hope Air, host Chris Glass sits down with Jon Collins, Chief Development Officer, to discuss the ongoing challenge of ensuring that no Canadian is left behind when it comes to accessing medical care. Jon shares his personal connection to Hope Air’s mission and how the organization’s work resonates with families across the country who face financial and logistical barriers to healthcare.

With demand for Hope Air’s services continuing to rise—expected to surpass 43,000 travel arrangements this year—Jon explains the importance of funding, airline partnerships, and community support to keep this life-changing service operational. He shares moving patient stories, including families who, without Hope Air, would be forced to take grueling 14-hour drives or sleep in their cars while seeking treatment. This episode highlights how aviation plays a crucial role in healthcare accessibility and why supporting Hope Air isn’t just charitable—it’s essential.

Transcript

Chris Glass: 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of Open Skies. This is our second part of a two-part series here at Hope Air Headquarters. I am with John Collins, Chief Development Officer for Hope Air. John, welcome to the pod.

Jon Collins: 0:14

Yeah, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me, Chris.

Chris Glass: 0:16

Excellent. Well, why don't we get into a little bit about your story and how you ended up here at Hope Air?

Jon Collins: 0:21

Yeah, I mean, I just found my way, I guess is the way to put it. So I've been working in charity most of my career and really proud of the work that I've been doing, a lot of meaningful causes but I didn't know anything about Hope Air and, frankly, I didn't know much about the issue that we serve. And that was the summer of 2021 and kind of just got a random job posting arrive in my inbox from a headhunter. Sometimes you ignore them and sometimes you read them and, for whatever reason, I read this one and what I read about was a charity with a really unique story serving a really important niche in our universal healthcare landscape and it just clicked with me universal healthcare landscape and it just clicked with me. I'll share openly.

Jon Collins: 1:09

I've got a mother who was managing cancer when I was as a single mom when I was 15 years old in rural Nova Scotia. She didn't use Hope Air, but she used service through the Canadian Cancer Society that helped her get in and out of Halifax for her treatment. She wasn't driving at the time and so it immediately stood out to me the parallel to my mom's journey. I knew how much that service, how important that service, was to her and just making sure that she actually pursued the care. And so you know that made Hope Air quite compelling. I've got a young daughter who accesses services at SickKids here in Toronto and I was holding her, literally holding her, when I was looking at the job description and I just I became aware in that moment of how fortunate we are, despite, you know, a diagnosis that she's managing and managing pretty well, how fortunate we are to just drive to the hospital, and I had never thought about the people that couldn't, and I've been thinking about it ever since.

Chris Glass: 2:06

When I was talking to Mark earlier, a thought kept coming into my head that this is one of those things you don't think about until you're in this situation, and then you can't stop thinking about it. Then it becomes so ever-present. So an amazing need being met here by Hope Air.

Jon Collins: 2:26

Yeah, and aware that you were speaking to Mark, I'm mindful of stealing one of his quotes, but he always says to us that a healthy person has a million wishes, but a sick person only has one. Wow, I think, if you're a sick person who either it's for yourself or your child and you have the goal of getting healthy, but then you come to find out that treatment is 1600 kilometers and thousands of dollars away, and there are a lot of people in this country that that that would be a game changer, like a stopper of treatment for and yeah, it's precisely as you say. They're very focused on getting well and we're grateful that what we can do helps them focus on that and not the what ifs or the how can I's or even just booking their own travel. We allow them to focus on what matters, wow.

Chris Glass: 3:14

And in your role as chief development officer or chief fundraiser, if you will.

Jon Collins: 3:19

It is a little cleaner that way, yeah.

Chris Glass: 3:20

What is your role here at Hope Arrow? What do you do from day to day here?

Jon Collins: 3:24

that way? Yeah, what is your role here at Hopera? What do you do from day to day here? Yeah, well, it is that right. I raise the funds. We have some government support, but I raise the funds from individuals and private partners to help keep the machine going. So really it's about telling our story in a way that connects with the person on the other end of the mic or just the person on the other end of the email or in conversation, and we work hard to maintain relationships with a loyal group of funders that really get it. And then we spend a lot of time sending our message to those who might be like me several years ago and need to be enlightened on the issue, and we're just really fortunate that we can tell that story in a way that's resonant and a way that Canadians who value our universal health care system can grasp. And that's what we do. I guess we tell stories of impact and we tell stories of the people that we serve in a way that the donor likes to hear and feels motivated to support.

Chris Glass: 4:16

I know with a lot of charities, a lot of the bigger charities you donate money, it's a great cause, but the sightline to where your money goes somewhat gets lost. You know you're helping and you know you need to help, but you don't have that direct sightline. This is one of those charities where that sightline is so ever-present and it's such a clear message exactly as you put it right, and I don't want to say that my job is easy.

Jon Collins: 4:46

Again, I've said that people find universal healthcare resonant and we just we put the message in front of them about the need and also, you know, telling the story of impact is pretty straightforward. Our work is more complex than people might realize, with different airline vendors, with different travel partners and other programs that we offer, but at the end of the day, all we're doing is taking somebody from a community far away to healthcare that they need and deserve, and so to tell that story of this is patient X, who lives in Timmins, ontario, and their travel, their treatment, sorry was 1,100 kilometers away and their options were, you know, insurmountable credit card debt or, in another person's case, canceling the appointment. All we do is take your dollar and buy an airline ticket or leverage that dollar with a donated partner or something of that nature, but all we do is take it, put somebody on a plane, take care of them while they're in their treatment city and help them access the health care that they need. It's quite literal and, frankly, that's why I'm proud to do the work as well.

Chris Glass: 5:50

Right. And so for every dollar that Hope Air gets, how much of it goes directly to caring for the people who need care?

Jon Collins: 6:00

Yeah, it's a great question, and so we're proud of the straight line to impact that we have, and we're also proud that we run our operations quite efficiently. So the most direct answer is that for year 2024, it'll be 83 cents of every dollar that we spend goes direct to patient programming, and then the balance is fundraising, support or some administration things or premises, rent, things of that nature.

Chris Glass: 6:24

Now so let's lift up some of the stories. So when we're talking about why somebody should give to Hope Air, give me an example. Give me an example of maybe your favorite patient story or one that you know that really resonates with donors and resonates with people who are listening right now.

Jon Collins: 6:50

Truly, there are so many stories that I could choose to tell you, and I think, speaking of residents, what's great is that we support every medical condition, so if cancer is something that has meaning to you, we can tell you that story. If pediatrics is something important to you, then we're supporting a lot of children about 25% of our flights 25% of what was it?

Chris Glass: 7:06

13,000 flights.

Jon Collins: 7:08

Of 13,000 flights, our children. That's right For a range of conditions, of course, and of course it is the kids that stand out to me as a young father, and yeah, I guess that's the story that I'll tell you. So we were in Vancouver in the fall and we actually had a patient come out and speak to some of our supporters at an event. She's from a town in remote northern BC where she's settled, where she has a family, where home is a part of catharsis and part of healing and nature is a part of really what's important to them as their wellness, and so she told that story about how they were driving some 14 hours on a regular intervals to get to care, sleeping in cars, things of that nature.

Jon Collins: 7:51

That's all powerful, but what was most powerful to me is that she told the story of finding out about Hope Air at this time of year, right around the holidays. And it wasn't that there were cost savings, it wasn't that they were getting their child the treatment that they needed for a rare neurological condition. It was that they get to get home on a plane and spend the holidays together and be home for Christmas instead of being at a hotel in Vancouver while she's, you know, pursuing her treatment, and I just thought that was profound, right? So our work is about health access. Our work is about delivering better outcomes for people and hopefully helping them get healthy, but there's all those things that you don't think about, I guess, right, those intangible pieces that we were putting families back together, and that's what she spoke about. She said at that time, going through what they were going through to just have a holiday meal together instead of driving back and forth to treatment was profound for her, and it was profound for me when I heard about it.

Chris Glass: 8:52

The gift of time, if you will right.

Jon Collins: 8:55

Yeah, exactly that Again time spent with family. But just while we're on it, it's also time spent at work, right? So, Ayn, if you're having to take the time to drive and you're a low-income family, which is, by definition, who we serve, those extra days back at work that you're not missing are just as important as some of the other things as well.

Chris Glass: 9:15

Right, so talk to me a little bit about, you said, people who are either at the poverty line or low economic means. Talk a little bit about that, like the money goes to people who really need it in the community, right, like driving back and forth, like you said, sleeping in cars.

Jon Collins: 9:34

Yeah, well, that's it, and we evaluate everything on a case-by-case basis, so there's no defined number or financial needs means. Sorry that we qualify people on, but we are focused on people in need. There's a stat that we use in our fundraising that actually says we are focused on people in need. There's a stat that we use in our fundraising that actually says that 50% of Canadian families tell us that they couldn't afford a sudden expense of $1,000 or more. And if you're taking a single trip for medical care, that's at least the amount that you're going to spend, right?

Jon Collins: 10:06

So we know there's a huge amount of Canadian families that could benefit from this service, but we are focused on the people that need it most. So it's those families that are struggling to make ends meet, otherwise that are having to make decisions around putting food on a plate or paying rent for a given month. That's who we're focused on, right, and really just alleviating that financial burden. I guess. To elaborate, you know health care is provincial, so each province has different ways at looking at how they support this. And for people above a certain income threshold, a reimbursement program works pretty well, or getting a percentage back of your bite works well. For people the niche of people that we serve it's the inability to front it on a credit card. Or, again, most of our clients take multiple trips per year, so it's carrying I don't know three $3,000 trips on your credit card or trying to find the funds to ever pay that off. Those are the folks that we're focused on. And then for others, uh, there are some programs that offer some support.

Chris Glass: 11:06

Wow, and you know when you, when you talk about those trips for $3,000, you know multiple times uh, these are people who are not only having to deal with the financial burden and the travel, they're also sick or dealing with sick kids, or you know. So there's it's not like a blue sky kind of travel situation.

Jon Collins: 11:29

Yeah, you know. It's interesting that you mentioned that because, again, I've shared with you that well, frankly, I knew very little about the world of aviation and I've looked at the fringes of it since joining Hope Air, but I hadn't really thought about the issue either.

Jon Collins: 11:40

Right, and just to your point, when we think about travel, it's uh, it's business or leisure. Right, it's not this unique niche or this important service that exists. Right and now I look around the airport and I'm acutely aware that that a percentage of people, uh, especially on regional flights within country, are traveling for something much more needed, frankly, than my vacation or my trip to a meeting. Right.

Chris Glass: 12:04

Right.

Jon Collins: 12:06

Yeah, and it's not fun at the best of times, right yeah. We haven't put my three-year-old on a plane yet because my wife and I, as much as we love to travel, are a little bit anxious about navigating through that experience right. And the families that we serve don't have the option and, to your point, they're managing the stress of that on top of the stress of its specialized care that we deliver so often. A very challenging diagnosis with its own. I don't know nuance and the challenges. Am I understanding that?

Jon Collins: 12:38

Yeah and the pressures of life on top of it. Right, so the families that we serve. There's a whole mental health angle to their experience and then, I think, to the support that we provide a game by just getting them to where they need to go without all the questions about it yeah, you know, we had a previous pod guest.

Chris Glass: 12:55

Uh was the president of encore uh for westet and he talked about um going to visit uh those regional bases and he set a mission to go visit every single station that encore flew to and this process took him almost a year, a year and a half to do because of the lack of regular flights.

Chris Glass: 13:17

Sometimes there'd only be a flight every second day. You know the remoteness of some of the locations, so somebody who works for an airline who's getting around had trouble getting to these remote destinations or more regional destinations. I couldn't imagine somebody who had to do that while navigating all the medical concerns. Right, you talk about business, leisure and now medical.

Jon Collins: 13:45

That's like a third bucket of travel that a lot of people would never consider until they're there. Yeah, and you know, our healthcare system doesn't care how often Encore flies into Terrasby Street, right, they have a cancellation, they offer you your specialist appointment and they want you to be there I don't know tomorrow afternoon, right, Right, and so that's a limitation in terms of the logistics of our business. But, to your point, if you're someone who can't afford the trip to begin with and then you think, well, I've got to be 14 hours away in Vancouver or Toronto tomorrow morning, how am I going to get there? All kinds of questions. But then also, as you know, it's going to be the most expensive flight of your life, right? If you could plan that three months in advance, it's a very different proposition than next week or tomorrow morning.

Chris Glass: 14:30

You're not on red tag deals, looking for a last minute flight to Cancun.

Jon Collins: 14:34

Precisely right. And, of course, you've mentioned WestJet, who's a great supporter of ours. Often we're able to travel in kind with them. They donate a number of flights, a significant number of flights, to us, but it's an interesting part of our operations as well is if we often work with last minute or at least short timeline travel based on the nature of our healthcare system, which means that our costs per ticket are quite a bit higher as well when we're booking on behalf of someone else.

Chris Glass: 15:01

Going into 2025,. What are your goals for fundraising? How can people help? How best can people get involved?

Jon Collins: 15:11

Yeah, I appreciate you asking. I mean, our ambitions are quite high. So, just to share context in 2024, from fundraised sources, we'll raise about $4.7 million, which is up 60% year over year from 2023. And we're quite proud of that growth. But in a lot of cases we might stop there. We'd just be proud and we'd aim to sustain that, but Hope Air's reality is that we're seeing more and more demand month over month, year over year, since really the end of the pandemic, right. So our goal is to keep up.

Jon Collins: 15:48

Yes, I have a budget target of a certain percentage growth over $4.7 million, but our goal is to make sure that this organization continues its proud legacy of funding every eligible travel request that comes in the door, and it's actually it's a weight that we wear every day. So I know you've given me the opportunity to share a donate link and I should do that, but the truth is I think I want the listener to understand that it's a profound challenge in front of us. We're ready to step up to the challenge, my team and I but we've got to raise more and more money because we know that you know jumping from 10,000 to 25,000 to 43,000 travel arrangements. It's not stopping at 43K. There is more to do, so we've got great ambitions to just reach more people, have conversations like this to talk about the value of our work and generate more funds.

Chris Glass: 16:41

And you can give by visiting hopeairca Excellent, not only of the financial side. A lot of our listeners are people who make decisions for airlines or pilots themselves, so how can they help other than writing a check?

Jon Collins: 16:56

Yeah, again, I think we rely on great relationships with airlines across the country. I've mentioned WestJet, who's been with us really since day one of their charitable program, and others that we're proud to work with as well. But certainly we like discounted flights, we like donated flights and we just we know that they get it right. The conversation that we're having around the infrequency of commercial service at certain airports in this country and how hard it is to get from point A to point B, we know that that audience understands our work and the niche that we're filling. Please reach out around opportunities to take advantage of discounted fares or whatever that may look like. But also, please just take a moment to think. I think about what our patients are living with, and if you can tell one person about our work at Hope Air and how you can relate to it, I think that has a lot of value for us as well.

Chris Glass: 17:54

Well, this has been such an enlightening experience to lift up the stories here at Hope Aaron, and really shed some light on, I think, a charity that a lot of people should be supporting, because you never know when you're going to need to travel and when you're going to be sick or somebody you care about is going to be sick, so this has just been a fantastic opportunity. Thank you so much for having us, john.

Jon Collins: 18:16

I appreciate it. Thanks for letting me share the message.

Chris Glass: 18:18

Excellent and we'll be back with more at.