The night of April 14, an NCR corporate jet departed from the Meridian FBO at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport, marking the Corporate Angel Network’s 50,000th cancer patient flight since it was founded in 1981.
Alongside NCR executives, 1-year-old cancer patient Baron Yerby and his parents, Caroline and Jonathan, flew home to Atlanta for free on a Bombardier Challenger 300 owned by NCR after Baron received treatment for retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
“This flight took away so much of our stress, and it was also much easier for Baron, who tends to squirm and get feisty when we fly commercial because he’s sitting on our laps and can’t move around,” Jonathan said. “We are very grateful for the opportunity to fly with Corporate Angel Network. We felt so cared for.”
For 35 years, Corporate Angel Network has partnered with corporations to arrange free transportation for cancer patients to specialized treatment using donated seats on corporate jets.
“It’s because of NCR and the many other corporations, along with the entire business aviation community’s support, that we are able to assist so many with cancer-related travel on the aircraft of America’s leading companies,” said Randall Greene, chairman of the organization.
CAN averages 225 patient flights per month with just six staff members and 30 volunteers; more than 500 corporations help facilitate its mission.
“The people at Corporate Angel Network are very caring, dedicated and on top of everything. The logistics and communications that they facilitate are incredible,” Jonathan said. “It seems too good to be true, but it is true. From the moment we got on the plane to the moment we arrived at the hangar, the hospitality was unreal.”
