For 25 years, the Squamish Volunteer Drivers for Cancer Program has helped get people needing out-of-town medical treatment to their destination.
However, this fall, the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) cancelled its support for the program throughout the province.
Locally, it is still operating. The Squamish Hospice Society recently stepped up to act as an umbrella organization, setting up an account for the program to take in its own donations.
Those donations will be crucial now, and at a recent Rotary luncheon, Rotarian Don Patrick presented the program’s community lead Grace Halvorson with a cheque for $8,000 as a first installment to help with the program.
“It has really taken off,” said Halvorson. “The seed money that came from you made the difference.”
The CCS terminated the Volunteer Driver Program throughout B.C. and Yukon in October.
“Closing the Volunteer Driver Program was a difficult but necessary decision to make,” the society said on its website on Oct. 6.
It cited factors such as the need to maximize its donations, as well as increased operating costs, the existence of government-funded driving programs and the decreasing volunteers and ridership.
These factors, Halvorson said, do not apply to Squamish, which has volunteers to drive as well as patients who need rides. The program operates on volunteer hours, but it does face costs, especially since the recent decision left organizers having to cover expenses such as insurance and office phones.
“We’re finding that the program is costing us more than we thought,” said Halvorson.
Through the service, volunteers provide rides for people with cancer who need to travel to the Vancouver area for treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiation.
“It is out there, it is a need,” Halvorson said.
Many of the patients do not have the strength or finances to make the trip on their own, and in some cases, family and friends may not be available to help when the time comes for treatment.
At present, most of the volunteers act as drivers, while a couple of others, including Halvorson, work as dispatchers. For the first eight months of this year, 11 drivers provided 79 trips. Some patients use the program a few times, while others use it upwards of 20 times. Over the years, it has helped almost 50 people get to appointments.
For December alone, there were already 11 trips set up as of last week, despite the news in October about CCS’s cancellation of support.
Halvorson wants to make sure people know that while the program is using hospice’s charity number for administration purposes, it will operate separately from hospice and the services it provides. The donations are to be made to the Squamish Hospice Society, but they should clearly state that it should be designated for the driver program.
“We hope that people will donate to us because now we’re self-funded.”
For now, if people want information about donating or volunteering, they can contact Halvorson directly at 604-898-3072, although the program will have its own phone number at 604-390-3331 set up by this week.
They can also get in touch by email at squamishcancercar@gmail.com.
