At just 19, Asian-American pilot Ethan Guo aims to be the youngest person to fly solo across all seven continents to raise funds for pediatric cancer research.
Jules Verne’s famous novel Around the World in 80 Days is becoming a reality with 19-year-old Asian-American pilot, Ethan Guo. However, rather than 80 days, the young flier aims to travel across all seven continents and 60 countries in 100 days. Like the book’s protagonists, he’ll be doing it for money—but certainly not for personal gain. Instead, Guo aims to raise one million dollars for pediatric cancer research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital—one of the leaders in the particular field.
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Flying Young
Guo began his momentous journey in Geneva, Switzerland, and is flying a 50-year-old, four-seater Cessna 182 Skylane. He intends to make stops in several countries, namely Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia, Australia, the Philippines, China, and Japan. The pilot recently made his stop in the Philippines, as Jeline Malasig of Interaksyon reports, landing in Manila on October 17 from Davao.
Afterwards, he intends to cross the northern Pacific to Alaska, before making his way to Canada and the USA, then flying to South America and Antarctica.
Guo started flying at the tender age of 13, and already earned his private pilot license at 17. According to his official website, the young pilot is IFR-rated, which means he “can fly using instruments alone, without visual ground reference.” At 19, he has already flown to all 48 contiguous US states and crossed the Atlantic three times, with more than 700 hours of flight time.
Fighting Cancer
Though Guo could very well choose to simply pursue his dream of breaking records as the youngest pilot to circumvent the world, he instead chose to make his endeavor a more meaningful one.
In 2021, his cousin (who is the same age as him) was diagnosed with cancer (stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma). This, paired with Guo’s experience of having watched other loved ones grappling with the disease, encouraged the pilot to make raising one million dollars for pediatric cancer research a part of his flight goal.
“Cancer is a cruel disease, especially when it attacks children. My cousin, who is bravely fighting this disease, inspired me to take life more seriously and join the fight against cancer,” the pilot writes in a statement. “I use every opportunity to raise awareness of childhood cancer and the necessity to increase research efforts to find prevention and treatment methods. Children should not suffer from cancer.”
Guo hopes that every cent from his fundraising goal will help St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in their endeavors to improve survival rates for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases worldwide. Currently, the pilot has raised $54,156 for the hospital—hopefully, the numbers will continue to increase as people choose to donate through St. Jude’s fundraising page.
As Guo puts it in his website: “When People Help Each Other, Everyone Wins.”
Banner photo from the Ethan’s Flight Against Cancer website.
