Health Hero: Cheryl Arentz

Thargomindah is a town of 250 Queenslanders on the banks of the Bulloo River, and, for the mother of a baby in need of a triple-bypass operation, it’s a 17-hour drive from Brisbane. “Instead, we got them there in 3 hours,” says Cheryl Arentz, a 50-year-old Brisbanite and volunteer pilot for Angel Flight Australia. “I didn’t grow up wanting to fly,” Arentz says, but having spent her youth in the bush and then marrying an air-force pilot, she was always bound to spread her wings. “I started training in my late 20s, later got my night licence, and last year became qualified to fly in bad weather.”
In addition to running a business with her husband, Arentz has flown 63 Angel Flight missions. The organisation often calls on her at short notice to transport people living in regional Australia, as well as their families and carers, to and from medical care. “Sometimes we get jams and jellies as thanks,” she says, “but that’s not why we do it! We get to know our passengers, and we often see that their treatment is working.” Funded entirely by donation and volunteer effort, Angel Flight has conducted more than 7,000 missions nationwide for more than 1,600 Australians. “We get so much more out of it than we put in,” Arentz says. “If you’ve got good health, you’ve got everything.”

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• Chris Hopton, guardian of the waves

• Carol Cooke, diving right in