Going the extra mile (s) to send medical supplies to regional towns

A REGIONAL Queensland town was about to run out of medical supplies when their cries for help were answered thanks to a Good Samaritan.

The Brisbane-based maintenance coordinator for Anglicare Southern Queensland and self-described hobby pilot David Lefrancke was delivering hand sanitisers to our St John’s Residential Aged Care home in Toowong last Tuesday when he saw an opportunity to do more.

“I thought, there must be some way we can help them out,” David said.

Medical supplies were being delivered across the state but some regional towns were missing out.

Early one Sunday morning, David drove out to Caboolture Airport with his friend and fellow pilot, Phil Watkins, with 20kg of much needed medical supplies.

They boarded their two-seater 2007 Czech Sport Aircraft around 10am and less than three hours later had landed at Roma Airfield with their essential supply of 48 hand sanitisers, 20 gowns, two boxes of gloves and 10 masks for our Community Aged and Disability team in Roma.

“We were shifting boxes to send to our aged care homes in Hervey Bay and Bundaberg and I asked the procurement manager Rachel Fredman, ‘what about out west?” he said.

“And she said well we have some desperate people in Roma but we haven’t got a fast way to get it out there. And I said, well you do now.

“She sort of went, you know, ‘that’s a long way to drive, it’s like a five hour drive.’ And I went, ‘yeah, we’ve got a better way to get down there.

“She said ‘how’s that?’ and I said ‘I’m lucky enough to co-own an aircraft, so we can fly this stuff out on the weekend.’ We sort of went from there.”

David has been working for Anglicare Southern Queensland for nearly three years and said it was one of the best organisations he has ever worked for.

“It’s a fantastic organisation,” he said. “They are a great bunch of people and I love working for Anglicare.”

David was met at the Roma Airfield by Service Coordinator Tracey O’Brien who was over the moon with the kind gesture.

“It really was a godsend because we were pretty much out of everything,” Tracey said.

“We also provide services to St George and Chinchilla so it wasn’t only us who were relying on it.

“I am very grateful to David for helping deliver the medical supplies to us as he did it in his own time. Without him, we wouldn’t have had it otherwise.”