Jess Ames and Maddy Beck chat with Derek Ray, an AFE passenger, who looks back on how Angel Flight saved his life. He shares how taking the flight cut his travel time by a huge chunk, allowing him to get to his heart transplant surgery on time. Derek also expresses his desire to volunteer for Angel Flight after their services drastically transformed his overall outlook in life.

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In this episode, we have a passenger, who's one of our favorites, Derek.

How are you?

Flying With Angel Flight

Good. Do you want to go in a little bit and talk about your lifelong experience of Angel Flight?

It does seem like a lifelong experience. It's years worth of utilizing Angel Flight. It all started back in 2020 when I ended up having my first heart transplant. We had complications with the transplant so I needed to go to a specialized hospital system. I had no way of getting there. After doing some research, I realized that Angel Flight wasn't just down South where I used to live but they were pretty much coast to coast. That's when I realized and found Angel Flight East. It's funny. You say that I'm your favorite passenger but Angel Flight East is probably my favorite flight.

We'll take it.

 

 

We won't tell everybody else. We'll let you tell everybody else through the internet.

It's funny because they say the Southerners are supposed to be the most friendly. I don't even know what they're called down in Tennessee but you all beat them hands down.

We're going to put that on a T-shirt.

You're better than the Southerners.

That's amazing.

Every time people say nice things to us, I'm always like, “I want to send my mom this episode. I want my mom to hear this.” She won't believe you.

I don't want to go as far as saying you don't know what you're doing or you don't know the impact that you have on us as passengers because I'm sure you do but you all are more than just a free flight to a medical situation. I don't know how many times I've reached out even on a personal level, which I won't go into details about on your show. I pick up the phone and reach out. I always talk to somebody.

 

 

Friendship With A Pilot

Can you talk about the friendship you built with that you're super close to?

Dan is amazing. He works hard. The way we built that friendship was he was my pilot at one point. I did not realize that he was local. He's ten minutes up the road from me. He owns a tractor facility. They build tractors. At that time, I was also taking piloting classes myself to get my single-engine license. It became when I'd fly with him, he would let me fly a little bit and stuff like that. It became a great friendship. I was telling Maddy and stuff a while back, “That's what I want to do. I want to get my single pilot's license and start flying for Angel Flight.”

Don't worry. We'll keep you busy.

Flying is amazing. It's so relaxing. I know why the pilots do it. They do it to help the patients but it's such a peaceful world up there. There’s no politics up there.

Post-Heart Transplant

The CFR pops in. Since you've had your heart transplant, can you tell us a little bit about your journey post-transplant? Where are you in life? What's going on?

Unfortunately, I can't be the story like, “I had my transplant and life turned around. It was amazing.” As we all know, that was not the case. I had my transplant and it seemed like anything that could come up after that came up. There were countless rejections. My body wanted to reject it with admittings and countless surgeries. What made it difficult, which is also what made our relationship blossom the way it did, was when you're having a medical problem, your local healthcare system can't be the one that is equipped to take care of it. That would be way too easy.

“The pilots with Angel Flight are more than just pilots.”

It seemed like I was being balanced. As we all know, it wasn't just little hops, skips, and jumps. It was from Pennsylvania, New York, to North Carolina. We went to Indiana one time because we did a three-pilot hop. That's what I'm talking about. That's the amazing thing about Angel Flight. You would think that Indiana is way outside of Angel Flight East’s zone but you all went above and beyond and set it up. I switched to three different pilots but I got there. I got the treatment.

Our treatment was done earlier than expected. Not only was I freaking out like, “What do I do?” I didn't have the funds for hotels and all that at that time. The pilot who was supposed to pick me up and bring me back wasn't able to change his schedule. He went above and beyond, got me a hotel room out of his pocket, and said, “Stay the night there. I'm also going to put money in your room. That way you can order dinner. You'll eat and everything.” He took great care of me. The next morning, he was there and we flew home. He didn't have to do that. That's how the pilots are with Angel Flight. They're more than just pilots. I'll put it that way.

Coffee And Chocolate Milk

Those are the stories we never hear because the pilots do the flight and everything and then fill out their mission reports. We don't hear how they go above and beyond for patients. I feel like they're all extremely humble but almost too humble. I'm like, “Please let us brag about you or brag about yourselves a tiny bit.” What they do for their volunteer service is incredible. People don't know about it.

 

 

They don't do it for recognition or anything. Girls, you know I love you with all my heart.

Don't worry. We are not easily offended whatsoever.

I love you with all of it. When we get down to the nitty and gritty, the pilots are Angel Flight. There are countless hours and put together the flights and help the patients. That's amazing. Nobody could do it without you but when it comes down to the very bare minimum, none of this would happen if the pilots didn't donate their time, fuel, hangar fees, or taxing fees. I'm at a little bit of an advantage to say this because I’m going to flight school and stuff like that but I don't think people realize how much is involved from a pilot standpoint.

“Angel Flight would be impossible if the pilots did not donate their time, fuel, and fees.”

Angel Flight pilots are never going to tell you that because they're not doing it for the recognition. For example, to take their airplane out of the hangar, they have to pay a tarmac and hangar fee. They have to pay for their fuel, which is not as cheap as filling up a car. They have to pay a taxing fee. A flight from where I live, let's say, Pittsburgh, which is about maybe a 2.5-hour or 3-hour flight, I don't want to over-exaggerate it, but for that pilot, that's probably a $10,000 to $15,000 trip. They don't charge you a penny for that. What do you say to somebody like that other than saying thank you?

I have a slight advantage because I know it from the other side as well like for the training to fly and stuff like that but the average person's not going to know that. They're going to think, “The pilots are donating a couple of hours and maybe a couple of hundred dollars.” It's nothing like that at all. It's a couple of hours but we're talking a large chunk of change for every one of those flights. If I have it correct, which I'm pretty sure I do, the pilot covers all that out of their pocket. They donate that themselves.

We have relationships so it's one of those deals. Angel Flight takes a village. You have your village and us in the office. I like to refer to us as travel agents without Disney World. That's what we do. We connect dots and make sure that you know what's going on, where to go, and how to get there. From there, we have the pilot village. On the other side of the pilot village, we even have an airport village.

 

 

I feel like you don't think about it like that but the airports that we work with are usually willing to waive landing fees or give a discount on fuel. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes it's $0.50 but $0.50 goes a long way in a 100-gallon tank. Going to fill up my 12-gallon car, I'm like, “$0.50 off. Look out, world. I am rich.” I can only imagine what it would be like for that discount on a plane.

Saving A Life

Derek, what do you think you would have done without Angel Flight? Would you have driven to your appointments or gotten there a different way?

I knew this question was going to come up. This is not being melodramatic but I would have died. I wouldn't have been able to get there. I didn't have a family that had that kind of money. I needed to be there for the transplant. I would not have made it for the transplant and ultimately, I would have died. You have to understand. I don't know how other people work but my first option wasn't like, “I need to be here. I don't want to spend my money or use my car. Let me see what options are out there. Look, there's Angel Flight.”

My first thing was I went through all my family and nobody could. I remember when I was a kid about Angel Flight down in Tennessee and I'm like, “Let me, for the sake of argument, look it up and see if this is even a possibility.” That's when I found you, guys. I'm sure you hear this all the time either literally or figuratively but in my case, it was literally. You all saved my life. There's no way to sugarcoat it.

I have mascara on and if you make my eyes sweat, I'm going to beat you up.

That's fine. I'll come to you and let you do that.

We're going to have to drive all the way out there and take a road trip.

I'm not ready for some sweaty eyes.

I realized we're not that far apart.

It’s not that far from Philly.

You’re down by Philly. Are you closer to the Cherry Hill area?

I live twenty minutes from Cherry Hill.

I used to live in Princeton.

I was going to say Princeton's uppity.

My ex-husband had money and he liked to flaunt it, which is why we divorced ultimately. Seriously, I couldn't do it. It's funny. I went from never having to want anything to living check to check but I'm happier.

That's all that matters.

Princeton is bougie.

They do have a great winery there. That's all I know about them.

The only thing I know about them is they have a good steakhouse.

You live there. That's all you got?

Yeah, it's called Brio. It's amazing. If you're ever over in that area, go to Brio. It's at the mall.

Note to self, men in Princeton are subpar. Steakhouse in Princeton is above par. Got it. Noted.

Note to self, men from New Jersey are subpar. Let's cover all of that.

We told you, you're not allowed to cry.

I know.

Team No Sweat Eyes.

You all saved my life on more than one occasion. I know that there has never been a time that I sent an email or picked up the phone, gave you ladies a call, and was told, “We can't help.” Never once. I don't know if you remember this but I ended up having to be at an appointment in the middle of winter. We could not fly and you all ended up getting me a car service to drive me four and a half hours to New York.

It's so funny because every time we think about you, we're like, “We wonder where Derek is. We haven't heard from him in a while.” It's instantaneous. Your name pops up on our caller ID. The last time you called, we were like, “Derek Ray, where has he been?” You then called and I was like, “He's still here.”

I hope this doesn't make you feel bad but that does make me feel bad because I should reach out more often and say, “I'm still kicking. How are you, guys?”

We would know.

It feels like every time I pick up the phone, it is for something. Fortunately for me, this last time wasn't for me but unfortunately, it was for a close friend of our family who is going through a hard time.

We're so happy that, whether you're calling us for you or somebody else that you know, it's not a barrier. You have no hesitancy to call us or give our numbers out to anybody to make sure that you get what you or they need. You're hired.

Listen, if there was a job opening that I could work for you, I would do it like that hands down. I say that all the time. I would love to work for Angel Flight. Even if it was a volunteer position like coordinating flights, I would love it. I don't know if you all know this or not but I talked to you a while back. I started an event planning company. I went and got my degree in that and everything. That's what I've been working on for the most part.

I have you all listed, even on our website, about how amazing you all are and how you went above and beyond to save my life and everything. It's not like I use you guys and then go, “That's it.” I make sure everybody knows about you, at least I try to. It's one of those things. You hope that you never need to work with you but if you do, you know you're in good hands.

Closing Words

Is there one final thought you want to share with our audience?

My final thought would be you hope that you never need Angel Flight but if and when you do, you're going to realize that you're not just working with people sitting in the office. You're working with a family. They become family quite quickly. You have to understand that they're there in your darkest moments. They're the ones that are lifting you off the ground. It becomes more than that. You built a friendship, not just with the staff at Angel Flight but with the pilots and the airports. I remember there was a night that I stayed at one of the airports.

“You may hope that you never need Angel Flight. But if and when you do, you will realize that you are not just working with people sitting in an office. You are working with a family.”

That was in Raleigh, wasn't it?

It was in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

I woke up and saw your text.

It was a private airport and fancy but the thing was they let me sleep in the pilot's lounge in a comfortable recliner. They fed me. You're right. It takes a village and the villages that you all have put together are parted end. I hope you all know how much you do. I know you probably hear it all the time.

Not enough. I can't wait to share this episode with everybody so they know how great Maddy and I are.

This whole episode needs to become my ringtone.

You two are amazing. It's so nice to finally see you, guys.

We've talked on the phone for the last few years.

I could pick your voice out of a lineup.

I thought this was a telephone thing so I was like, “I ain't going to put gel in my hair or nothing.”

You look cute.

You look great.

You all are amazing.

Episode Wrap-Up

Thank you so much. You are the best. We're so appreciative of you sharing your story. We're so happy we're able to help you. We'll continue to for as long as you need us.

We'll still bother you when you don't need us.

You never know.