The Editor,
Re. “Cancer drivers needed ($, too)” (The Tri-City News, Sept. 2).
I am a mother of two school-aged children. I was diagnosed with breast cancer last November. After my operation in January, my chemotherapy treatments were to start at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver in May. We wondered how we would juggle one vehicle between picking up and dropping off kids, dad going to work as well as going to the north shore.
By good luck, my friend told me about the Volunteer Cancer Drivers’ Society, which she happened to see on Global News BC.
The group is still new, so the funding is tight. With that in mind, I made a donation. I have been given rides by several different volunteers from the Tri-Cities, who are all friendly and dedicated people. Right now, they take me to Surrey for radiation therapy appointments.
Just the other day, one driver went over the Port Mann Bridge six times to take me and other patients to different sets of appointments. Things like this don’t happen often, he said, but more volunteer drivers would be helpful in situations like this.
Big cancer organizations receive donations from many sources but the great achievements made by those organizations are more valuable only when patients can access the services with ease.
I’m planning to ask my children’s school if it can raise money for the Volunteer Cancer Drivers’ Society to help our neighbours this fall. I hope you can help them, too.
Michiyo White, Coquitlam
