Local pilots’ association helps Belmont boy’s family keep
faith
Gilroy – When Larry Fernandes arrived at the June meeting of the South County Airport Pilots Association, he expected the talk to be of World War II combat planes, not a little boy with leukemia.
Jim Creel, a board member of the group whose mission is to preserve the South County Airport, enhance flying safety and promote fellowship among E16 pilots, announced that 5-year-old Benjamin Murphy needed to be immediately flown to Minnesota for an experimental procedure.
Creel didn’t have a plane that could fly the boy and his family cross country, but he knew fellow SCAPA member Fernandes did.
“Being that we know everyone in the group, he was the only one with a plane of that caliber,” Creel said.
“The beautiful thing about Larry is, I went to him, with only the basic information and he agreed without any commitment of fuel or the cost,” Creel said. “We said, ‘If it were my son or daughter, I would pray that someone would volunteer to help me.’ ”
The pilots didn’t know all the details of Ben’s illness or what his family had been through when they offered to help him out. Ben’s immune system was suppressed and the Belmont family couldn’t fly on a commercial airline because of the likelihood Ben would catch a cold or flu, making him ineligible for the clinical trial.
Ben was diagnosed with leukemia in 2003 and underwent a bone marrow transplant. Signs of cancer returned to his body a few months ago. The family could not enroll the him in the clinical trial at the University of Minnesota until the cancer level showed up as more than 5 percent, the level at which the medical community acknowledges a relapse. In a two week period, the level jumped from .6 percent to 17 percent and the family knew it was critical to get him to Minnesota as soon as possible.
“The issue is the more disease, the less likely a treatment is to work,” said Bob Murphy, Ben’s father. “We expected a few more weeks to get to Minnesota and get into the trial.”
While Ben’s mother Jody was concerned about getting the boys ready and packing up for a six-month stay in Minneapolis, Minn., she said her husband put into perspective what the pilots had offered to do for them.
“It brought him to a point where he had tears in his eyes that people were being so generous,” Jody said. “It’s one of those moments that I haven’t seen him have in a long time.”
Board member Mark Sochan signed up to be Fernandes’ co-pilot and the two set out planning the cross country trip. On Wednesday morning, they found out the Murphy family needed to be at Fairview Hospital in Minnesota by Thursday morning so they had to leave that afternoon.
“It kind of crunched the flight planning,” Fernandes said. “Usually before I go cross country, I have more time to flight plan. I look at the weather the week before, but this time we just jumped in the plane.”
Fernandes has been flying planes since 1972 and has an airline transport license as well as an 11-seat corporate plane. The plane had just enough room for himself, Sochan, the Murphy family, including Bob, Jody, Ben and his little brother, Mike, as well as the family’s luggage.
“There was definitely a real sense of satisfaction. I think both of us felt that way,” Fernandes said. “We were really glad to get him there. It was definitely a high. We would want to do that again.”
But Fernandes stressed that it wasn’t just himself and Sochan that helped the family, but all the members of SCAPA.
“I am sure Jim Creel would have done it if his airplane was capable of that type of trip in a moderate amount of time,” he said.
So far members of SCAPA have pitched in to help cover the cost of Fernandes’ fuel.
“The guys pitched in a hundred or two hundred dollars each,” Creel said. “We got thousands there and these guys, a lot of them, are hard-working blue collar guys.”
While the SCAPA pilots got the Murphys to Minnesota in time, Ben was not eligible for the trial so the family returned home to the Bay Area.
“It’s not about the ending,” Creel said. “It’s about what people are willing to do.”
Ben turned 6 on July 4. He had plenty of visitors and each brought a gift to the celebration. He is undergoing chemotherapy at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto while the family considers a few experimental treatment options.
