The worst day for any parent and how Virgin helped just a little bit. UPDATED ON P18

[hermione25]

I have been posting on another thread about my youngest DD heading off to do Camp America this summer, and how wonderfully both Camp America and the director of her particular camp had been when she'd started with a suspected infected wisdom tooth almost as soon as she arrived. I'll just recap briefly what has happened over the past 2 months.

8 weeks ago, after completing her first year at university, we sent our youngest daughter, Isabel off to undertake Camp America. As soon as she arrived, she had some issues with her mouth, which was diagnosed as a wisdom tooth infection. Over the following few weeks she saw dentists and had lots of antibiotics and painkillers. Unfortunately these didn't seem to work, and just over a fortnight ago, an oral surgeon decided that all her wisdom teeth needed to be removed. During this operation, the surgeon was surprised to find a cyst around the tooth, which he removed and sent off for analysis. Initially, this relieved her symptoms. However, by the time she returned for a follow up appointment last Thursday, the swelling and pain had returned. Unfortunately at this point, the surgeon informed Isabel that pathology showed it was in fact a tumour. We were told further tests were being carried out to ascertain whether this was a benign or malignant tumour and a very long, difficult weekend followed.

On Monday this week, our 19 year old daughter rang to give us the worst possible news. She had cancer and needed to return home for immediate surgery and aggressive treatment and they feared this may be a secondary tumour. You can imagine, as a parent, this is the worst possible thing to happen to your child. But a child over 3,000 miles away? We were inconsolable.

Camp America arranged flights to get Isabel home within 24 hours. When I saw they were Virgin (Delta) flights, I initially wondered about trying to use the family's airmiles to try to upgrade her - obviously she is in pain and hadn't slept for many days and unable to hug her, I wanted to do anything to ease her discomfort. At this point, I realised both Isabel and our other daughter had gifted all their miles to us - to upgrade a silver anniversary trip for December and none of us had any miles left. I then thought of ringing special assistance and was lucky enough to speak to the wonderful Bethany, who through my tears, listened, and did everything she could to help.

I don't remember telling Bethany which connecting flight Isabel was on. However, when she landed in Atlanta yesterday, their lovely representative Leonard was waiting for her off the plane. I believe he hugged her when she cried. He then escorted her to the Delta lounge where she could sit comfortably and enjoy some chicken noodle soup (soft enough for her to be able to eat), during her 4 hour layover. Leonard came to collect her and took her to her flight, then escorted her to her upgraded seat in Premium Economy - at the front with extra leg room. The flight crew made themselves known to Isabel and told her they would assist her in any way. She was lucky to be able to sleep nearly the whole journey, without any sickness, and on landing yesterday morning in Manchester, another representative was waiting for her. She actually chose to make her own way through customs and baggage reclaim as she knew we were waiting for her just beyond. I can only tell you there were many, many tears as she came through customs to us.

You can imagine we haven't slept ourselves, counting down the minutes until we could get her home, but when she Facetimed us from the Delta lounge in Atlanta and then from her seat on the aircraft yesterday, we were so thankful that this terrible journey she was making all alone, was made better by the kindness of all the Virgin staff she encountered.

We have been for scans, x-rays and blood tests today before an urgent oncolony appointment at 9am tomorrow. To our surprise, when we returned home this afternoon, there was a large bouquet of flowers waiting for Isabel, sent from Virgin Atlantic with a note saying they hoped she'd had a lovely journey home and that she had made a wonderful impression on their ground staff, and wished her well.

I know there is another thread regarding Virgin at the moment which shows when things go wrong. But I believe when things go right, and for me they have gone so far above and beyond it's hard to put into words, then that too should be commended.