Pilot takes grief-stricken family members on flights to help them heal
Fly-Hope-Dream, which takes family members who have lost a child on healing plane rides in a 1942 vintage World War II training biplane, is en route to Redlands.
The nonprofit’s therapy plane concept is piloted by Gareth Williams, who lost his 12-year-old son Timmy to the incurable degenerative disease, pulmonary hypertension, six years ago.
Williams’ mission is to transform the loss of a child from tragedy into legacy, one family at a time.
Williams, originally from the UK, used to work as a consultant. But he noticed the makings of a midlife crisis.
“In the middle of life, a lot of us get to a point where we have climbed the corporate ladder, raised kids, knocked things off our bucket list and ask ourselves, Now what? After I got the plane I started to realize there was a way to use it to bless others.”
He went through a Christian motivational program to identify what direction to take next in his life.
“I was stuck in an office cubicle and bored out of my mind. I wanted to do something more meaningful. Identifying flying was easy. I took my passion for helping people impacted by chronic disease and illness, especially parents and siblings, and combined it with the other thing that made me unique — being a pilot that owned a biplane. I fashioned this dream around that. Over time that morphed into families that have lost children.”
According to the nonprofit’s website, 57,000 children under the age of 19 die in the United States every year.
“The leading causes are auto accidents, suicide and various illnesses, including childhood cancers and heart disease,” the website says. “Each day, over 150 new families are inducted into this exclusive club … a club no one chooses to belong to.”