The Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service travel team have donated over 100 pairs of thongs to patients in need in the second year of a successful remote support project. Photo: Supplied.
It’s an iss-shoe common enough to warrant an annual donation drive – patients medevaced from Cape York or the Torres Strait and unable to set foot on their flight home because the last thing they thought about after a medical emergency was needing a pair of thongs.
The Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service (TCHHS) travel team found patients were often taken out of their communities without shoes, and when returning, were being turned away at the boarding gate at Cairns Airport, a situation that inspired the first thong donation drive in 2024.
After donating more than 60 pairs of thongs to patient accommodation centre Mookai Rosie Bi-Bayan in Cairns last year, the team was able to nearly double their donation to the Australian Red Cross this year.
“Airlines need all patients to have footwear before they board an aircraft, and Red Cross are just an amazing accommodation partner for our patients and escorts as well, so we were very happy to work together,” acting travel supervisor Olivia Smith said.
“This year, we decided on a theme – every journey begins with a single step, and we’d love to be able to continue to make it an annual thing and be able to help the communities.”
The donations, which were entirely from members of the travel team and their families, also included basic toiletries this time.
“Also, with this donation, we understand that patients and escorts do require basic necessities, such as toiletries, so pretty much anything we could add to the tubs, we did,” Ms Smith said.
“Torres and Cape patients and escorts that are medevaced out of community are pretty much just picked up with whatever is on their back, and majority of the time, it doesn’t even include their handbags, let alone additional clothes and bare essentials like toothbrushes and soaps.
“By having these items available, it reduces stress on families at an already incredibly stressful time.”
