RACQ LifeFlight Rescue's Busiest Base Celebrated in Style!

500 people filled the Empire Theatre on the weekend, celebrating over forty years LifeFlight has come to the aid of more than 56,000 people.  Toowoomba LifeFlight Ball celebrated the service's proud history, of Queenslanders supporting Queenslanders. 

Guests toasted the milestone to the tunes of The Greatest Showman and Australian performer, Todd McKenney, with this year’s event a sell-out, even before tickets were released to the public.

LifeFlight Chairman, Hon Rob Borbidge AO, said it's a testament to the generous Darling Downs community and shows how important locals believe the service is.

"In the last financial year, Toowoomba crews flew 643 missions, making the community helicopter base our busiest in Queensland," he said.

"It was a record year and demand is only growing, so it's so important we keep fundraising to continue supporting Queenslanders in their time of need."

The community spirit was clear, with the event making more than $330,000 for the rescue service.

In a spectacular show of support, guests raised a whopping $20,000, in just ten minutes, buying balloons in a bid to win a diamond ring.

Past patients of RACQ LifeFlight Rescue were honoured guests at the glamorous fundraising event, including truck driver Margaret Woolley, who was impaled through the chest with a steel rod, while she was behind the wheel earlier this year.

"This is my very first ball and it's lovely to be the guest of honour, just beautiful," she said.

"If we didn't have these choppers, and the people that operate them and the medics that go in them, there would be a lot more deaths."

"I was there!" Margaret said.

"Apparently I was knocking on the pearly gates...but they turned me around and sent me home!"

Another patient, who RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helped save, was in attendance and arguably voted "cutest on ground".

Charlie Till was airlifted last year, after he suffered a brain haemorrhage, while visiting family in Moonie.

The eight-year-old took to the stage last night, to personally thank attendees for helping to save his life.

Charlie, along with a number of other past patients, and their families, also handed this year's "Save a Life" sponsors a thank you gift.

Kerry Carmichael, whose 2-year-old child, Sonny, was airlifted from Dalby to Brisbane last year, says his little boy wouldn't be here if it wasn't for RACQ LifeFlight Rescue.

"Sonny was diagnosed with leukaemia in December and by the time they found out what it was, he was a very sick little boy," Kerry said.

"When LifeFlight turned up, it just felt like a relief for us. 

"At some point in your life, you're going to know someone that's going to need LifeFlight," Sonny's mum, Petrea, said.

The aeromedical service RACQ LifeFlight Rescue provides is world-class and comes to at no cost to patients. The service has to make up 30% of the operational costs of lifesaving missions and this is raised through sponsors, donors and events, like the 2019 Toowoomba Ball.

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