The Sault’s John Willcock enjoys driving local cancer patients without transportation of their own to Sudbury for necessary radiation treatments.“There’s a history of cancer in my family,” Willcock told SooToday in an interview.
Conversely, they bring patients back home to the Sault following treatments performed the previous day.The Wheels of Hope program schedules travel days for its volunteer drivers while the Canadian Cancer Society reimburses them for their fuel costs. All charities were hit hard and lost volunteers. Wheels of Hope was no exception but is recovering from that loss.
“You get some satisfaction from it and you feel good about yourself for sure, but it’s all about helping patients out. It’s all for them.”Sault Area Hospital patients needing radiation treatment or radiation/chemotherapy treatment must travel to the Shirley and Jim Fielding Northeast Cancer Centre in Sudbury as of Feb. 11 while SAH installs a new state-of-the-art radiation treatment unit. Installation of the new SAH unit is expected to be completed by July 2024.