Cancer is no fun. It wreaks havoc on lives and families and strikes capriciously and cruelly, often with no rhyme or reason.
But don’t tell Nancy Salmon that.
She doesn’t let the stupid disease get her down even though she spends several days every week with people fighting the disease.
Salmon fought and survived her own bout and now pitches in on a regular basis to make life easier for others going through the same thing.
As a volunteer for the Volunteer Cancer Drivers Society, she is on the road three or four days a week, driving cancer patients to their chemotherapy or radiation treatments, waiting for them while they get their treatments, then driving them back home. The physical and emotional exhaustion often requires people to get some help getting around, which is where the Volunteer Cancer Drivers Society comes in.
Salmon has not only had to battle cancer herself, she’s also taken care of her husband for three decades after he suffered a brain injury. He’s now in a home, leaving Salmon extra time on her hands.
Salmon has been hitting the roads for the Volunteer Cancer Drivers now for two years and gets 44 cents a kilometre for gasoline and car maintenance expenses and wracks up about 1,000 kilometres a month driving people from Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows to appointments at Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre, Surrey Memorial Hospital or Vancouver General Hospital.
“I love it. I absolutely love it,” she said recently.
“It’s very rewarding.”
Her patients also ride in style because Salmon just bought a new Chevy Impala, partly for the service.
Recently, Salmon had two trips in one day, not an unusual occurrence. One trip required her to take a patient into VGH then back again, an errand that took the entire morning. Then in the early afternoon, she was back on the road taking someone else to Abbotsford.
And instead of being down, patients usually battle away at the disease cheerfully and appreciate the rides back and forth, she said.
“It’s so nice to be able to lift them up,” Salmon says.
“This is a godsend, this society. For a lot of people, they’re just so thankful,” Salmon says.
Sometimes, for a bit of extra fun, she’ll bring her two shih tzus, Tattoo and Zoey. The friendly little dogs sit in the back and brighten everyone’s day.
Salmon’s positivity must rub off on her passengers, because so far, after two years, she hasn’t encountered one negative experience. But if she did, she said she’d straighten him or her out in a hurry, she jokes.
She’d encourage anyone else with a vehicle and a few hours to spare, to think about helping out with the Volunteer Cancer Drivers.
“I can’t think of anything else that I have enjoyed as much. It’s just been marvellous.”
Salmon is one of 164 registered volunteer drivers with the society, but only one of four in Maple Ridge. The organization needs more drivers in this area.
• Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer driver can go to: www.volunteercancerdrivers.ca.