One of the greatest needs of cancer patients is basic transportation to and from hospitals and facilities for outpatient chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Understandably, work, school and other obligations of family and friends can conflict with a loved one’s medical office visits. Also, being healthy enough to drive themselves is another concern; along with the expense of getting back and forth.
One of the greatest needs of the American Cancer Society of Eastern Missouri is for volunteer drivers to provide this free service to cancer patients. The ACS Road to Recovery Program in the St. Louis metropolitan area has about 90 drivers dispatched in St. Louis City, St. Louis County, St. Charles, Warren, Franklin and St. Francois counties in Missouri, but they need many more.
More than 2,100 rides have been provided through Road to Recovery.
Volunteer drivers are able to take a mileage deduction from their taxes.
John Turner of Florissant, Mo. started off as a volunteer driver in 2009 after his wife succumbed in 2006 to ovarian cancer. A few weeks later, ACS needed another driver for its only salaried driver position, which, for many years has been funded by an individual donor. Thus, Turner is the only staff driver – a patient chauffeur, whose territory covers North St. Louis County. Turner said the best part of his job is serving patients – giving a hand to people who really need it.
“This is the first time in my life that I had ever done anything to help someone else like I am doing now,” Turner said. “I didn’t serve in the armed forces, so this is my way to try and give back to the people who need it.”
John’s work is one of three transportation services at ACS. The others include a gasoline card program and Road to Recovery.
“It’s our most utilized service and the one with the most volunteer need, I would say – in the St. Louis area,” said April Dzubic, an ACS spokeswoman. “You’re helping someone one-one-one, you’re getting to know their story.
She said it’s up to the driver how far they want to drive.
“In some of the areas, some places that you may cover, they may go from one county to the next,” Dzubic said. “If the driver is willing – that’s okay.”
“I would volunteer mainly once a week, but I did have a patient I picked up five days a week from down at Saint Louis-U on Grand,” Turner recalled. “His wife would wrap him up in the morning and I would pick him up and take him back home and everything.
“It was very lovely. We had to come in and go through the orientation … and make sure your car had to have insurance and everything.”
That means no “driving dirty,” folks.
“It was an opening door for me to get to know what it was all about and I’m so glad I did that,” Turner said.
Driver coordinators schedule the one-to-one pickups for the drivers.
“If they are just getting radiation, I’ll try to wait for them,” Turner said. “Now, if they are getting chemo, then I’ll drop them off and have them call me when they are ready and I go back and pick them up.”
The third ACS transportation program involves $100 gasoline cards that patients living more than 30 miles from treatment can apply for and receive to offset costs to and from treatment.
Dzubic said last year, ACS distributed more than 1,700 gas cards.
“If John’s not available or in the area, or Road to Recovery – we don’t have drivers in their area, that’s another service we have to just fill in that gap just to lessen the burden,” she said.
To volunteer for Road to Recovery or for more information, call April Dzubic at 314-286-8187, 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org.