Day 337 of #LiveWell2017

Here is an unconventional way to give to people who have life-threatening illnesses or are receiving palliative care. It’s giving their loved ones travel miles for “flights of compassion” so that the sick and dying can be visited by friends or family, often one last time.

“Give A Mile is a Canadian not-for-profit online platform that enables people to visit a palliative ill person or people with a life threatening illness through crowdfunding of flights via donations of travel loyalty miles.”

So, if you have travel miles to spare (a lot of people don’t use their travel miles each year), consider donating them to Give a Mile.

In the United States, Matt Dimmer founded a similar program, The Extra Mile, to connect loved ones to family members who are dying of cancer.

The Air Charity Network offers flights of compassion for medical patients and family members, to assist with adoptions, to relocate domestic abuse victims, and to respond to disasters. They don’t take travel miles, but they do accept financial donations.

So, here’s a unique opportunity to gift something special to people in their last days or weeks of life.

Give a mile.

Note: As with any charity donation, be sure to shoose the one that best fits your giving goals and spends more dollars on programs and impact than on administrative costs. You can check their ratings on Charity Navigator and Guidestar.