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Local organization Wheels of Hope looking for volunteers

January 26, 2017   ·   0 Comments

The local organization Wheels of Hope, involving people from the community providing rides to hospitals and treatment centres for cancer patients, is looking for volunteer drivers.

The organization is part of the Canadian Cancer Society and has been in Orangeville for over 20 years.

Volunteer drivers pick up the patient, drive them to the hospital needed, wait and drive them home. Depending on where the patient has their treatment, where their doctor is, or the type of cancer they have and hospital that treats it, determines where they will be driven. Although volunteers drive their own cars, they will be given remuneration for gas, on how many kilometres driven.

Tina Torrie has driven patients for several years, from London, Kitchener, Brampton, Newmarket, Sunnybrook Hospital and Princes Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, and even Orangeville’s Headwaters Health Care Centre. Previously a coordinator with the organization for a year, she says that during that year, at least one car on average would go out a day.

“If you were needing treatment and you haven’t got any way of getting there, we’ll get you there.”

Some of the requirements for a volunteer driver are having a clean, abstract driver’s licence and insurance, and smoking in the car is not allowed. Volunteers also go to a short training session with the Canadian Cancer Society.

Ms. Torrie says this organization is not only important for the patients, but for the drivers. “It’s a case of where you know you’re helping somebody get the treatment they need. It gives them a sense of purpose, it gives them a sense of helping somebody.”

For more information on signing up as a volunteer, call 1-800-268-8874 ext. 7192, or visit the Canadian Cancer Society’s website, www.cancer.ca, under the get involved/volunteer section.

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