Supporting the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia

Australia is vast. For 7 million Australians living in rural and remote communities, the nearest hospital can be hundreds of kilometres away. A heart attack, a difficult birth, a farming accident - emergencies treated within the hour in any UK city can be fatal simply because of where someone lives. People in the most remote parts of Australia die, on average, 14.3 years earlier than those in major cities.

These are not people who have been left behind - they are the backbone of the Australian economy. The farmers, miners, station workers and Indigenous communities of remote Australia produce the food, minerals and resources that the entire country depends on. They choose to live and work in some of the harshest conditions on earth because someone has to, and Australia is richer for it. We owe them our support.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS) has been bridging that gap since 1928. Every two minutes, someone in remote Australia needs a Flying Doctor. It covers an area the size of Western Europe, runs nearly 25,000 nurse, GP and dental clinics every year, and delivers 20,000 face-to-face mental health consultations to communities that would otherwise go without.

The Australian Government has committed $1 billion over ten years. It is not enough. More than half of RFDS operations depend on charitable donations - and that is where we come in.

RFDS Friends in the UK is a UK-registered charity, with His Majesty King Charles III as Patron, raising funds in Britain for the Flying Doctor in Australia. Your support helps ensure that distance is never a death sentence.