What drives them : VOLUNTEERS FIND OPPORTUNITY TO HELP CANCER PATIENTS BY PROVIDING THEM RIDES TO TREATMENTS
Posted on Sunday, August 31, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Living/68673/
The ride there from Wanda Spiller’s home isn’t far, just a few miles. She greets Ann Boyd with a simple wave, and soon, Spiller is riding in a car with a woman she’s barely met.
Together in Boyd’s red Acura with tan leather seats, they head to the Highlands Oncology Group in Fayetteville, where Spiller will receive treatment for cancer. Boyd knows a little bit about the place. She too fought cancer and received treatment there.
Boyd has been cancer-free since January 2007, and this is her way of returning the favor to the community that supported her during her battle against the disease.
Boyd is the local coordinator of the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery program, which delivers patients who might not have another method of transportation to treatments. Without it, some say, they wouldn’t be able to receive the radiation and chemotherapy treatments that have the potential to save their lives.
The strain of treatment Ann Boyd discovered she had cancer late in 2006. She fought the disease aggressively, and a surgery was successful in removing her tumor. Afterward, she was given chemotherapy and radiation treatments to decrease the possibility of the cancer’s return.
While she sat in waiting rooms before her own treatments, she overheard fellow patients sharing a common theme: It was terribly difficult for them to make it to cancer appointments consistently. Some treatments are daily, and Boyd discovered quickly that many of the patient’s family members had expended all their vacation and sick time driving them around. And because chemotherapy and radiation can leave one weak See VOLUNTEERS, page B 8 and unable to drive, it gives patients few options. “ When someone has to go to radiation everyday, that really puts a strain on family and friends, ” Boyd said. Late last year, Boyd inquired about the Road to Recovery, an American Cancer Society program that began in the ’ 80 s but did not have local participation. Boyd was introduced to the program while she lived in California, as her mother volunteered as a driver for 12 years. Since there wasn’t such a program locally, she decided to start one. Ironically, it was at the same time the local branch of the American Cancer Society decided it needed to find a dedicated individual to bring the program to Northwest Arkansas. Boyd and her mother went to Memphis earlier this year to receive the necessary training. She began driving patients in April.
Dedicated Patients often learn about Road to Recovery through cancer service centers or the treatment facilities they frequent. After calling the American Cancer Society to establish their need, Boyd gets requests for rides emailed to her.
Her home computer has a complicated spreadsheet of her own design that she maintains. It details all of the routes that Boyd or her other drivers will complete on any given day, discussing the patient, where they will be going and who is taking them there.
Patients are asked to file requests a week in advance of the need, but last-minute pleas are accommodated as best as possible.
Currently the program covers three counties: Washington, Benton and Carroll. In the future, the goal is to expand to the entire area serviced by the cancer society’s Northwest Arkansas branch: Crawford, Franklin, Sebastian, Logan, Madison and Scott counties, in addition to those already mentioned.
It would take a dedicated, local coordinator serving in a role similar to that of Boyd’s to establish the program in the Fort Smith area, said Erin Freeze, a Health Initiatives Representative for the cancer society and the staff coordinator for the Road to Recovery program.
As the upstart program searches for new drivers, Boyd knows that she asks quite a bit from those who already volunteer. They often make daily trips, picking up patients in outlying areas such as West Fork and delivering them to Fayetteville only to make the return trip a few hours later.
“ We’ve been very fortunate, ” she said. “ We’ve got some very dedicated people. ”
But most are very passionate about the cause. Like Boyd, many of those who volunteer have direct ties to cancer, such as a family member who has fought the disease. She has several retirees, several students and several with flexible work hours on her volunteer roster.
Getting there She’s often asked the drivers what the effect of the recent surge in gas prices will have on their efforts, as drivers are not reimbursed for their travel expenses. The most common answer is none at all.
“ They aren’t going to let something like a change in gas prices affect their desire to volunteer, ” she said.
Pam Salamo, a Fayetteville resident who has served as a driver for the local Road to Recovery program since April, has an idea why.
“ It’s very satisfying, and it’s so simple, ” she said. “ They [patients ] are so glad that someone is helping them. ”
Salamo’s uncle had served as a Road to Recovery driver elsewhere, and several members of her family have battled cancer. The Road to Recovery program was her attempt to give back, and she was immediately hooked.
“ The very first cancer patient I took, I identified with, ” Salamo said. “ You kind of develop a relationship. It’s not just a ride. You get attached to them. ”
It’s more than just a ride to April Peterson, too. Although Peterson recently moved to Springdale, she was living in West Fork, where a volunteer would pick her up daily to deliver her to the radiation treatments that may save her life.
Unable to work during her treatments for inoperable cervical cancer, Peterson can only rely on her grandmother for a ride to treatment so often. On days where her grandmother had to work and couldn’t drive Peterson 45-minutes each way for treatment, she would have no other way to make it if it weren’t for Road to Recovery. In her own words, “ I wouldn’t go. ”
Now more than two weeks after her last treatment, Peterson is still unable to drive herself due to the regiment of pain-killing drugs she takes.
But she already knows what she’ll be doing when she’s well enough to drive again: taking other patients to their appointments as a volunteer for the same program that helped her out.
“ When I get back on my feet, I’m giving back, ” she said.
Unfortunately, Peterson isn’t alone in her need for such a service. Through a grant provided by the cancer center, the Northwest Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute (NARTI ) offers a van service that transports its patients to and from the clinic. But that service was at capacity before the Road to Recovery program began, said Freeze, the cancer society representative.
“ We’ve come to find it was very much needed, ” she said.
And there is no more immediate need for those with cancer than getting to their appointments, something people such as Salamo are happy to help with.
“ If they can get there, maybe they can get well, ” she said.
• Those who would like more information about obtaining rides or volunteering for the program are encouraged to call (800 ) 227-2345.