Recently, Angel Flight volunteer pilot Patrick Machado helped Terry Baulch travel from Griffith to Sydney for cancer treatment, like all missions, he wasn’t expecting anything in return.
But waiting for him was a gift unlike any other.
Terry’s daughter, Allison Stewart, had hand-painted an emu egg especially for Patrick, a deeply personal expression of gratitude for the volunteer pilots and drivers who have helped her father access cancer treatment hundreds of kilometres from home.
For Allison, a proud Gulidjan woman, the gift brought together three important parts of her life: family, culture and art.
And the emu itself carries a meaning particularly fitting for her father’s journey.
“The emu is an important animal in Aboriginal culture, representing strength, resilience and moving forward,” Allison said.
“An emu never walks backwards, which makes it a powerful symbol of hope and perseverance.”
For a man who has spent more than 20 years living with prostate cancer, it is difficult to imagine a more appropriate symbol.
A story painted by hand
Born in Hay, Allison lived in the Riverina town until she finished high school and retains a strong connection to the community, where many of her relatives still live.
She now lives in Griffith, on Wiradjuri Country, where she is a high school teacher and mother of two.
Art has become an important way for Allison to share stories about Country, culture and family.
“I love that Aboriginal art tells a story and that those stories can be shared with others,” she said.
“My inspiration comes from Country, culture and family, and I enjoy creating artwork that helps people learn about Aboriginal history, traditions and the significance of different places.”
That connection is deeply intertwined with her own family.
Allison often paints significant Aboriginal places her father has taken her to throughout her life. Today, he takes Allison’s children to those same places, sharing knowledge about culture, history and connection to Country with another generation.
“Through my artwork, I can share those stories with others while also helping pass this knowledge on to the next generation,” Allison said.
The emu egg she created for Patrick also has a special connection to her own journey as an artist.
Emu eggs were the first medium Allison ever painted, before she progressed to paper, canvas and weaving.
So when she wanted to find a way to thank the people helping her father through one of the most difficult periods of his life, she returned to where her own artistic journey began.
“Giving the pilot a painted emu egg felt like a meaningful and unique way to say thank you for the kindness, generosity and care shown to Dad and our family,” she said.
The journey behind the artwork
Every element of the artwork tells part of Terry’s story.
Now 80, Terry has lived with prostate cancer for more than two decades.
He was diagnosed unexpectedly in 2005 after a routine medical appointment. Despite feeling perfectly well at the time, regular blood tests following a previous heart attack detected something was wrong.
Over the years, Terry has undergone numerous treatments and medications. Each has eventually reached its limits, but each has also given him more time with his wife of 54 years, Vilma, their two daughters and two grandchildren.
And in an extraordinary coincidence, one of those treatments created a connection between Terry and the Angel Flight pilot who would one day fly him to Sydney.
Patrick had co-founded a company in the United States that developed enzalutamide, a prostate cancer drug Terry would later take as part of his treatment.
Years after helping develop a medicine used by men with prostate cancer, Patrick found himself in the pilot’s seat of his aircraft, volunteering his time to help one of those patients access further cancer treatment.
Neither Terry’s family nor Patrick could have imagined such a connection when the flight was arranged.
In 2025, when Terry’s treatment was no longer keeping the cancer under control, his oncologist in Griffith referred him to a specialist at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, where he was given the opportunity to participate in a monthly clinical trial.
The opportunity offered new hope, but it also presented a very practical problem.
For Terry and Vilma, accessing treatment in Sydney meant regularly travelling hundreds of kilometres from home.
Angel Flight Australia stepped in to help bridge that distance.
Since Terry began the trial, the couple have travelled with Angel Flight around 30 times, with volunteer pilots flying them to Sydney and volunteer Earth Angel drivers helping them complete the journey between the airport and hospital.
“Without Angel Flight, there’s no way we could be doing this,” Terry said.
“The pilots and drivers are simply incredible. They give up their own time to help complete strangers, and they make every trip feel easy.”
More than a thank you
Allison wanted the artwork on Patrick’s emu egg to capture what those journeys have meant to her family.
“The artwork tells the story of my dad’s journey and the support our family has received through Angel Flight,” she said.
“It reflects the many trips he has made for his cancer treatment, the strength and resilience he has shown, and the kindness of the volunteer pilots who have made those journeys possible.
“The artwork is also about family, hope and staying connected to Country, even when you have to travel far from home.
“Above all, it is my way of expressing gratitude and saying thank you to the people who have helped make such a difficult time a little easier for our family.”
For Patrick, who is originally from the United States and now proudly calls Australia home, receiving the hand-painted egg was a touching reminder of the impact a volunteer flight can have long after the aircraft has landed.
In this case, the connection was even more remarkable. Patrick had played a role in developing a treatment that became part of Terry’s cancer journey, and years later, half a world away, he was helping Terry once again, this time not through medicine, but by flying him to the care he needed.
Angel Flight’s volunteer pilots donate their time, skills and aircraft to help rural and remote Australians access medical care that distance might otherwise place beyond their reach.
To a pilot, a mission might appear to be a flight from one airport to another.
For Terry’s family, those flights have meant something much bigger.
They have allowed an 80-year-old husband, father and grandfather to continue accessing a clinical trial that may give him more time with the people he loves.
And Terry’s participation in that trial may, in turn, contribute to research that helps other prostate cancer patients in the future.
For Allison, choosing an emu egg to tell that story brought everything together.
“Choosing an emu egg brought together my family’s story, my culture and my way of expressing gratitude to someone who has made such a positive difference in our lives,” she said.
A hand-painted emu egg began as a thank you for a flight.
Instead, it came to represent something much bigger: culture, family, resilience, medical research and an extraordinary connection between two people whose paths had crossed long before either of them knew it.