Seems like a visit to an RFDS base is a must-see for visiting Royals to Australia.
We had just calmed down from our brush with royalty when Prince William visited the RFDS Cairns base earlier in the year – when it was announced today that Crown Princess Mary of Denmark will be visiting the Broken Hill base on Friday.
The wonderful thing about these visits is that they are more than just a royal wave at the work we do. Prince William – with his background as a pilot – was genuinely interested in our planes, our people, the distances we travel and the amount of people we help across Australia. So much so that the RFDS was the only Australian charity nominated to benefit from a gift fund established for his wedding to Catherine Middleton.
As is Crown Princess Mary whose role as Patron of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, supports the agency’s work to promote maternal health and safer motherhood in more than 150 developing nations.
At Broken Hill on Friday Crown Princess Mary will be launching a new initiative with the McGrath Foundation, to support women living with breast cancer in remote areas.
In the last year, the RFDS Women and Children’s Health Service based in Broken Hill saw 610 patients at 170 clinics in 20 locations from Ballera in Queensland to Pooncarie in New South Wales. As only a third of healthcare professionals in remote areas are female, women living in these areas have limited access to women’s healthcare.
We’re doing our utmost to deliver essential primary healthcare to Outback Australia and we’re especially honoured to have the support of someone like Crown Princess Mary take an interest in the work we do.
