Download Island Girl to Airline Pilot: A story of love, sacrifice and taking flight

1
Island
Girl
to
Airline
Pilot
A story flight
of
love,
sacrifice
and
taking
Description
This is the incredible story of
Silva Mcleod,
the
first Tongan woman
to become an airline pilot, told with frankness
and wit by Silva herself. Silva was a Tongan girl
from a small island with little hope of anything
beyond getting married and churning out babies.
Her
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dreams of becoming an airline pilot seemed just
that 8212dreams 8212until Ken McLeod came
into Silvas life. He was an Australian hired to
build a hospital on her island of Vava u. She
started dating him despite frowns from her
family. After a whirlwind romance, they got
married in a traditional Tongan ceremony before
moving to Australia. Silva faced challenges in
Australia as a woman of colour. Then came the
biggest challenge of all 8212Ken was diagnosed
with cancer. He said to Silva, Do you still want
to fly? Life is too short, if you have a dream,
go for it. There were many barriers to succeeding
in such a male-dominated field, but Silva refused
to give in. She became the first Tongan female
airline pilot and worked for the Royal Flying
Doctor Service amongst other small airlines then
Virgin International, flying B777s around the
world. With every new height Silva reached in her
career, Kens struggle with cancer continued.
Despite the hardships, Silva is sure she would
dare to do it all over again. Dare to love a
white man and dare to pursue her dream to go from
island girl to airline pilot.