Arkansas Pilot, 74, Said Mission Was To Provide Hope To Other Cancer Patients

In April, pilot Jim Davis set out on a mission; to fly his experimental Savannah XL airplane "Purple Passion" to all 48 states in the continental U.S., giving rides to cancer patients and survivors.

Davis, 74, suffers from Stage 4 lung cancer. He said the goal of his trip was to show that a diagnosis of cancer is not "an automatic death sentence."

Television station KTHV reports that Davis returned to Ozark Regional Airport in Midway, AR last week after completing his journey. He began in April, flying to states in the eastern U.S. After a break in June, he flew west.

Davis had been given nine months to live when doctors found spots on his liver, in a lymph node, and on his right lung in december. But a CT scan in June showed that those spots had disappeared. He says it is a tribute to the power of faith.

Davis flew 40 people in the airplane during his 10,000-mile expedition. It might have been 41, but the last one on August 31 had a bit of a twist. The cancer patient from DeKalb, IL, identified only as Kris, flew Davis in his own airplane, rather than the other way around. Davis said it was the first time in years that he had been a passenger instead of Pilot in Command.

Davis chronicled the flights on his blog 'Flyinggem in Purple Passion'.

(Image via Facebook)

FMI: http://flyinggeminpurplepassion.blogspot.com/