‘STARS symbolizes love:’ Sask. family on 5th anniversary

It’s been half a decade since STARS Air Ambulance has been saving lives across Saskatchewan, and five-year-old Brynleigh Yewsuk’s is one of them.

Back in 2015, then three-year-old Brynleigh was in a farm accident near Melville, Sask. that left her with a major head injury, and — thanks to STARS — she survived.

Brynleigh’s mother, Marcy, said she couldn’t imagine her family today without STARS rushing her daughter to a Saskatoon hospital that day.

“To have STARS to transport her to the hospital and to the help she needed — when she needed it,” explained Marcy, searching for words. “STARS was just able to do it.”

While Brynleigh’s mission might have been two years ago, Marcy said their family still keeps in touch with those that saved her daughter.

“Brynleigh has a really good relationship with all of her crew,” she said. “Now, since we come to visit (the STARS base) so often, the whole STARS is a part of our family.”

And now, according to Marcy, those big red STARS helicopters are symbolic to the Yewsuk’s.

“(STARS) symbolizes that there is love — and there’s hope that everything will work out.”

In the last five years, STARS has responded to around 4,000 calls in more than 500 communities across Saskatchewan.

At STARS’ fifth anniversary party at their base in Regina on Thursday, the Mosaic Company gifted STARS $2.5 million, so many more lives could be saved — just like Brynleigh’s.