Their paths crossed before they ever met

When Angel Flight volunteer pilot Patrick Machado helped Terry Baulch travel from Griffith to Sydney for cancer treatment, he wasn’t expecting anything in return.

But waiting for him was a gift unlike any other.

Terry’s daughter, Allison Stewart, had hand-painted an emu egg especially for Patrick, a deeply personal expression of gratitude for the volunteer pilots and drivers who have helped her father access treatment hundreds of kilometres from home.

For Allison, a proud Gulidjan woman, the gift brought together three important parts of her life: family, culture and art.

“The emu is an important animal in Aboriginal culture, representing strength, resilience and moving forward,” Allison said.

“An emu never walks backwards, which makes it a powerful symbol of hope and perseverance.”

For Terry, 80, who has lived with prostate cancer for more than 20 years, it is difficult to imagine a more fitting symbol.

Allison, a high school teacher and mother of two living in Griffith on Wiradjuri Country, uses art to share stories about Country, culture and family.

Her father has played an important role in that connection. Throughout her life, Terry has taken Allison to significant Aboriginal places, and today he takes his grandchildren to those same places, passing knowledge about culture, history and Country to another generation.

When Allison wanted to thank the people helping her father through his cancer journey, she returned to the medium with which her own artistic journey began: emu eggs.

“Giving the pilot a painted emu egg felt like a meaningful and unique way to say thank you for the kindness, generosity and care shown to Dad and our family,” she said.

Every element of the artwork tells part of Terry’s story.

Diagnosed unexpectedly with prostate cancer in 2005, Terry has undergone numerous treatments over the past two decades. Each has eventually reached its limits, but each has also given him more time with his wife of 54 years, Vilma, their two daughters and two grandchildren.

In 2025, when his treatment was no longer controlling the cancer, Terry was referred to a specialist at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney and offered the opportunity to participate in a monthly clinical trial.

It offered new hope but also meant regularly travelling hundreds of kilometres from Griffith.

Angel Flight Australia stepped in to bridge that distance.

Since beginning the trial, Terry and Vilma have travelled with Angel Flight around 30 times, supported by volunteer pilots and Earth Angel drivers.

“Without Angel Flight, there’s no way we could be doing this,” Terry said.

“The pilots and drivers are simply incredible. They give up their own time to help complete strangers.”

But Terry’s story contains another extraordinary connection.

Years before volunteering to fly Terry to Sydney, Patrick had co-founded a company in the United States that developed enzalutamide, a prostate cancer drug Terry would later take during his treatment.

Neither man knew their paths had already crossed through medicine.

Years later, half a world away, Patrick would help Terry again, this time from the pilot’s seat.

For Allison, the artwork captures not only that remarkable connection, but what every Angel Flight journey has meant to her family.

“The artwork is also about family, hope and staying connected to Country, even when you have to travel far from home,” she said.

“Above all, it is my way of expressing gratitude and saying thank you to the people who have helped make such a difficult time a little easier for our family.”

A hand-painted emu egg began as a thank you for a flight. Instead, it came to represent something much bigger: culture, family, resilience, medical research and an extraordinary connection between two people whose paths had crossed long before they met.

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