Cancer patient transportation program needs six volunteers to launch in Peace region

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The Canadian Cancer Society is recruiting volunteers from across the Peace region to help transport patients to the Dawson Creek and District Hospital.

That’s according to Mark Kahan, the volunteer coordinator for the society’s Wheels of Hope program, which is currently expanding to the Peace region.

Kahan, who has been with the society for nearly a decade, started as a volunteer driver with Wheels of Hope in another community.

“When [my brother-in-law] first told me about it, I thought, ‘I don’t know’,” Kahan said. “I thought I could be dealing with really sad, depressed people.”

Kahan says he couldn’t have been more wrong.

“The people that I was volunteer-driving for lifted my spirits up,” he says. “It’s really amazing.”

According to Kahan, the Wheels of Hope program is currently expanding to new communities thanks to a funding injection from the provincial government.

“We’re so thrilled to bring [the program] to this area, to the Peace River region, just to help those in the community that really need the Wheels of Hope,” Kahan says. 

Anyone who lives within a one-hour drive of the Dawson Creek and District Hospital can volunteer with the program, regardless of whether they’re residents of Dawson Creek or elsewhere.

Kahan says the society needs at least six volunteers to officially launch the program.

Prospective volunteers need a valid driver’s license with three or fewer demerits and will be asked to commit to either a half-day or full-day shift each week. Volunteers will use their personal vehicles.

“To take on cancer, it takes a society of people, so, to anyone out there: if you like to drive, if you enjoy chatting with people and have a few weekdays in a month to spare, please consider signing up.”

Volunteers can also get reimbursed for their mileage and receive tax receipts from the society in exchange for their work.

Kahan says the patients who benefit from Wheels of Hope are extremely appreciative.

“I just had a volunteer driver just tell me recently, he was dropping off one of his clients after her appointment, and he was waiting in front just to make sure she got in okay,” he explains.

“She stopped, walked back to his car window, he rolled it down, and she pointed at him and said, ‘It’s because of people like you, people like me are still alive.’”

People who are interested in volunteering with the Wheels of Hope program are encouraged to visit the Canadian Cancer Society website. 

Kahan says people who want to take advantage of the program when it launches can call the society at 1-888-939-3333 to learn more.

To view the full interview with Kahan, look below.