Bellah Free and her mum Cassie remember harrowing LifeFlight rescue

Little Bellah Free has been reunited with the pilot who saved her life after a cruel medical condition sent her body toxic shock.

LifeFlight past patients Kasey Leadbetter, Cooper Prior and Bellah Free at the Toowoomba gala.

Bellah Free and her mum Cassie owe everything to LifeFlight.

When she was just three-years-old her pancreas burst and she went into toxic shock three days later.

Her organs were shutting down and death would have happened soon if it were not for the LifeFlight crews that stabilised her and rushed her to hospital.

Now aged 11, Bellah was a guest of honour at the Life Flight Gala on Saturday when she was reunited with Dave Bashir the pilot who flew that lifesaving mission.

“I’ve got a lot of scars but I’m better now,” she said.

“I love LifeFlight and the chopper.

“When it flies over our house all the time and I run outside and jump up and down and wave like crazy to see if the crew can see me.”

Bellah’s mum Cassie was there when the crew gently lifted her out of bed and into the helicopter.

“Without that crew that night, my baby wouldn’t have made it,” she said.

“She was so sick, she was slipping away.

“When they loaded her into the chopper it was the first time in days that I had some hope that my baby would be okay.

LifeFlight past patient Bellah Free, 11, with LifeFlight Chief Pilot Dave Bashir at the Toowoomba Gala. Dave was Bellah’s pilot in her medical emergency eight years ago.

“They did everything possible to keep her stable even when we had a scare mid-flight, I thought we’d lost her, but the crew never gave up on her.”

A seat at LifeFlight’s black tie gala is one of the most sought after tickets in Toowoomba’s social calendar and the 2024 event was no different.

More than 700 tickets were sold, while another 700 people were placed on the waiting list.

Among the guests on Saturday was Julie Stewart, a former Toowoomba LifeFlight Regional Advisory Committee member who organised the first gala in 2007.

“We had about 220 guests back at the first gala,” she said.

“I’d never imagined that it would grow into an event of 700 that sells out before we even release the tickets.

“We can’t fit more than 700 in this room and there’s literally nowhere else to go.

“It’s a good problem to have.

“Toowoomba’s such an incredible community.” 

Originally published as Bellah Free and her mum Cassie remember harrowing LifeFlight rescue