Support on the streets

Working as one of the Flying Doctor’s fundraisers, Matt is regularly out in the field, talking to people about the work the RFDS does right across the country and in our own backyard. As a result, Matt has become a veritable vault of priceless stories and anecdotes.

“The stories I hear every day at the fundraising stand, from people who have been directly impacted by the Flying Doctor, are incredibly motivating. I could almost write a book a month based on the amount of people who tell me their own stories. It is an amazing organisation.”

One of the more memorable stories Matt has heard over his years with the Flying Doctor came from a lady named Anne, who worked as a bush nurse in Ivanhoe, NSW, many years ago.

“One day, Anne heard a knock at her door, and when she opened it, there was a man there, clasping one hand shut and holding a bucket with the other. ‘Hello miss, I seem to have done myself over’, he said to her.

“Anne asked the man what was in the bucket. He showed her and it was his three middle fingers! He'd cut them off while working a saw. ‘Do you mind if I come in for a cup of tea?’ Anne told him that she was organising a plane to fly him off to Sydney for surgery and that there was no time for tea!

“A few months later, Anne heard another knock at the door. It was the same man back, this time smiling ear to ear. He gave Anne a five fingered salute – ‘So can I have that cup of tea now?’ And they did!”

As a fundraiser, Matt is the face of the Flying Doctor in many communities – a responsibility he takes very seriously.

“There isn't another charity in the world that is quite like the Flying Doctor,” he says. “The importance of what the Flying Doctor does, not just in the Outback but also closer to metro areas is vital to so many people.”

The role of fundraisers like Matt is to help educate people on what the Flying Doctor does beyond just ‘swoop and scoop’ rescues in the Outback, and sign them up to our regular donor program, called Support Crew.

“My favourite days are usually in small out of the way places that you wouldn't expect to see a fundraiser,” says Matt. “These areas are where people just walk up time after time and have good old yarn with me. It doesn’t feel like work when I’m in these communities, even though I've generally signed up a good handful of people to the Support Crew. These are the good days!”

Matt is so passionate about RFDS that as a commercial pilot himself, he aspires to one day fly for the organisation. “I know that is the dream for many budding pilots out there besides myself,” he adds.

Despite Matt’s passion for what he does for the Flying Doctor, he admits that not all days out in the field lead to positive interactions. Matt has found that some people do not approve of organisations like the Flying Doctor seeking donations from the public, perhaps not understanding that RFDS Victoria is actually 95% donor funded.

“People occasionally say that it's sad an organisation has to resort to face to face fundraising,” says Matt. “I do sometimes get people asking me why I don't get a 'real job'.

“The reality is that we fundraisers bring huge value to the organisation. We tell stories, create public image, make contact with the general public, raise plenty of money and do it all with a big smile on our faces. It takes a lot of skill and a pretty high tolerance for rejection to be good at it.

“The result of our work is more planes in the air, more doctors and staff on the ground and in the sky, just generally more of everything that the Royal Flying Doctor is. I think that's a pretty important job, don't you?”