PEOPLE Magazine: Heroes among us

Excerpt from PEOPLE Magazine, February 4, 2008

Article “She gets special help for sick kids”

 From her office near the Las Vegas airport, McGee and her staff scour cheap-ticket Web sites and solicit donated seats from airlines, relying on foundation grants and individual donations to fund their $3 million budget.

 “These kids wouldn’t get the help they need without these flights,” says Diane Wilde, surgery coordinator for a Denver, Colo., practice that treats rare respiratory diseases.  “Ann is a national hero.”

McGee has flown an Ohio girl with facial deformities for surgery and follow-up care in Dallas more than 40 times.  Then there are the Halbert twins – 5-year-olds Taylor and Kirsten.  Diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, a disorder that causes recurrent tumors, they travel from their Las Vegas home every few months to see a doctor in Salt Lake City.

“They said he was the best of the best,’ says mom Jennifer Halbert, a nurse who stopped working to care for her girls; her police-sergeant husband, Chris, works overtime to pay for uncovered medical costs.  Of McGee, she says, “It’s amazing one person can make such a difference.”