Guardian | Clare Hardy
A VOLUNTEER who took charge of nearly 1,000 missions to airlift transplant organs to needy patients has died aged 89.
Margaret Bowman, of Hillcrest Road, Loughton, was one of the first members of the St John Ambulance Air Wing, which was set up in the 1970s to provide emergency transport for organs and medical teams across the UK and Europe.
The wing was founded by the secretary of St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping, Pat Bowen, who came up with the idea after she arranged to fly home a dying 16-year-old German boy who had been in a car crash in Abridge.
Mrs Bowman, known as Betty, started volunteering for the unit in 1972, co-ordinating flights and the transfer of organs from a control room at St Margaret’s and then her home.
Her daughter, Heather Lawrence, 64, who joined the ambulance cadets aged eight, was also a controller for the air wing and her husband Cliff helped her plan flights.
“There were only 13 in the team and they were covering 365 days a year, so my mother used to organise all the duty officers,” said Mrs Lawrence.
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