Lying to the north of the Vanuatu archipelago in the South Pacific, the Banks Islands are literally cut off from the world. Whenever there’s a medical emergency, the 9,000 inhabitants of the Banks have only Doctor Mark Turbull and his orange cuckoo to rely on. The sole doctor for hundreds of miles around, he is the only one who can land on the unlikely and dangerous airstrips of these tiny volcanic islands. Some days, despite changeable weather conditions, he may visit four or five different islands to look at teeth, deliver mothers or even operate on people under general anesthetic on the bare ground of the tropical forest.

Ivo Daniel Velasquez is an anonymous hero. At the controls of his plane, sometimes a tiny Cessna, sometimes a twin-engine Piper - he defies the quite extraordinary flying conditions of Bolivia to come to the assistance of the most remote communities in the country.
Whenever, Ivo lands his plane on the most unlikely airstrips, from the Andes and the Altiplano to Amazonia, for these communities he represents a vital link with the rest of the world. He doesn’t make a big deal about it, but, without him, the Aymara Indian woman having a difficult labor, the Quechua driver injured in an accident on dangerous road in the Andes or the Tsimane child bitten by a snake in the forest, would all have only a slim chance of reaching a hospital alive.