Lia’s Wings trustee Patrick Schoennagel introduces the charity and explains why a very powerful, personal experience drove his desire to enable it to grow to never say no. He also discusses the skills and experience the organisation has and how it has developed to support British children across the world who need access to vital medical care.
Lia’s Wings, which specialises in flying sick and injured children to hospital, is the first charity partner of the UK Health & Protection Awards.
Trustee Patrick Schoennagel (pictured right) is one of the key people behind its determination to help in the most difficult circumstances. He is also the father of Lia (pictured left) from whom the charity takes its name.
Throughout the last decade, and especially post-Covid, the charity has gained a vast amount of experience in helping children receive essential care.
Indeed, demand for the service has increased significantly, helping 60% more children and families so far this financial year compared with the same period last year, while flight costs continue to rise.
Schoennagel says that whether evacuating children from overseas to a hospital in the UK or supporting their family during such a difficult period, the charity knows the system “inside out” and can get them home sooner.
“We have this expertise that can help provide better outcomes for insurers and their customers,” he adds.
One example is that Schoennagel has seen too many insurers putting families on an air ambulance transfer when it’s not necessary.
“We have that medical expertise to know when it’s appropriate for a medical escort over an air ambulance flight,” he says.
“The difference in cost can be tens of thousands of pounds as well as reducing the cost of the care overseas.”
Related to that, one of the common issues is that travel insurance is typically set up to cover lost passports and limited medical treatments, not for babies born earlier than expected.
“There is a myth that babies cannot fly until they are full term,” Schoennagel says. “We have been flying premature babies’ home for 15 years now. This is the expertise we are able to share.”
Getting an edge
It has been a long and emotional journey to get to this point for the charity and Schoennagel, whose first contact with the charity was the result of a tragedy.
Soon after moving to the UK in 2015, he and his wife Melissa’s son Christopher was sadly stillborn.
This led them to start working with the charity, originally known as Lucy Air Ambulance for Children, when the investment firm he worked for, Houlihan Lokey, became its corporate partner, a relationship which continues today.
“Helping mothers who had premature births was relatable for me and my wife,” he says.
Schoennagel ran half marathons to raise money. But when he was promoted to managing director at Houlihan Lokey he decided that he needed to give something back, so in 2019 became a trustee of the charity.
Then in September 2022, he and Melissa experienced the worst day of their lives.
At 4:30 in the morning, they heard a thud and found that their five-year-old daughter Emilia had collapsed at the top of the stairs.
“I had the worst feeling I can imagine anyone feeling. A sense of fear, hopelessness, despair, disbelief,” Schoennagel says.
Unfortunately, Lia had suffered a cardiac arrest and had been starved of oxygen. After being rushed to hospital and undergoing intensive care she was declared brain dead.
“Those days in the hospital, not knowing what was going to happen, were the most vulnerable I’ve ever felt,” Schoennagel says.
“In that situation it doesn’t matter who you are, it is the most equalising experience for any human.
“You can be a billionaire or on benefits, if your kid is in hospital and you don’t know if they are going to make it, you are going to feel absolutely helpless,” he adds.
Despite being a great hospital, they did not know who to turn to.
“You just want to get an edge. You want to have someone who knows the system, maybe knows a doctor who can say: ‘Hey, this is a friend of a friend, please pay special attention’,” he says.
Lift them up
Schoennagel’s thoughts then moved to not wanting Lia to be forgotten, for her five years on Earth to have mattered.
His first idea was to start a foundation and award money in Lia’s name. But serving on the board of Lucy Air Ambulance for Children, he recognised the charity needed to change if it was to help more people.
This is where he focused building Lia’s legacy.
That was why in April 2023, the charity rebranded as Lia’s Wings to symbolise that they do not just fly people home, but lift them up, too.
“To me, Lia is always going to be my personal angel in heaven, so Lia’s Wings was born,” Schoennagel says.
They raised more money than ever before, hired more people and now help more families.
Indeed, when Schoennagel started raising funds for the charity, it carried out an average of 20 missions a year. Now there is at least one a week.
“Since the loss of Lia, we have doubled our activity,” he continues.
“It is driven by my personal goal to make sure that if a family is in the same situation my wife and I were in, if they reach out to us, I want us to be able to help.”
This has included establishing a separate Never Say No fund, which finances extraordinary cases even if there is a temporary cash crunch.
Originally most of the work was within the UK, but since becoming Lia’s Wings it has flown to or from around 25 countries in five continents, including Australia and the US.
Cases are as diverse as a premature baby born on holiday, or teenagers falling off a balcony and breaking their neck.
“Everything from medical emergencies to accidents and rare diseases and specialists in another country, we have done it all,” Schoennagel says.
So much more
The charity’s aim is working to do more and to touch more lives, not just in terms of airlifts and evacuation.
“We do so much more than that,” he says.
This includes accompanying a family until they have clarity over a medical situation, introducing them to people in the system and providing bereavement support when it is “no longer an air transfer of a child who has a chance, but an air transfer to bring a child home”.
“Lia’s Wings is about uplifting people, not just from an air transfer perspective, but from an overall being there when people need the support and there are few places to go,” Schoennagel adds.
High impact
Lia’s Wings has helped 174 children and families facing a medical crisis, but awareness remains one of the biggest challenges it faces.
One of the biggest fears is a family sitting in a hospital somewhere that the charity has the resources and expertise to help, but they do not reach out because they do not know it exists.
“Not every single individual knows us,” Schoennagel says. “Not every NHS doctor knows we exist. A lot of it is just driving awareness.”
To highlight the importance of awareness, Schoennagel pointed to a girl who would have died if the charity had not helped.
She was two years old, in Morocco, suffering from heart disease and her organs were shutting down.
The doctors said there was nothing they could do.
“The parents reached out to us, and we flew the girl to the UK for intensive care treatment. She made a full recovery.
“I met her father in December and when I told him I was Lia’s dad he immediately became teary eyed. He said that without Lia his daughter would not be alive today.
“We make a high impact when it counts the most,” he adds.
Lia’s Wings is the charity partner of the Health & Protection Awards 2026, which will be held at the Hilton Park Lane in London on 22 October.
It is the only UK air ambulance charity that delivers life-saving services in the UK and internationally. It helps children reach the vital care they need and provide tailored support to families as they face difficult and uncertain times.