Jared Phillips thinks one of the hardest parts about fighting cancer is fretting over whether someone will show up to give him a ride to his treatment. Phillips, who is battling bladder cancer, knows he cannot miss one day of his chemotherapy because it would dramatically cut his chances of surviving the disease.
“I would peer out from behind my window shades and hope that the cab or Uber will show up on time,” Phillips said. “If they didn’t…. well…I would be in big trouble. That just added to my anxiety.”’
Then, earlier this year, along came the genial Carol Rose, a veteran of the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery program. Rose and other volunteers provide free rides to treatment for cancer patients who can’t otherwise get to treatment.
“It is something I’ve done for a while and I just feel it’s my way of helping out,” Rose said. “I just wanted to lend a hand. And I like driving the patients and their families, getting to know them. And lots like to tell me their stories.”
Phillips and his wife Jennifer Barnes got connected with Rose through Tammy White Uecker, an RN and General Cancer Nurse Navigator with Intermountain Health Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge. It’s there that Phillips gets his chemo treatments but not before he relaxes a bit in the back seat of Rose’s SUV while enroute to the hospital.
“We don’t have that stress that I might miss a session,” Phillips said. Rose, Barnes added, has become a friend they can rely on for emotional support as well.
“We have never been late, which is such a relief,” Barnes said. “She (Rose) has been a God send.”
Phillips said he is disabled due to mental health issues that prevent him from getting out of his apartment. The couple’s car was also destroyed in a fire making them dependent on Rose and her vehicle.
The Road to Recovery program is designed for patients just like Phillips, said Uecker. “We have patients who don’t have access to transportation or are homeless, but they can’t miss their treatments,” Uecker said. “The number one obstacle to getting cancer treatment is access to transportation. Even the best treatment can’t work if a patient can’t get there.”
This program helps alleviate their anxiety and calms them down so they can concentrate on their recovery, she said. “My rule is to empower the patients. This program helps them do that.”
Ride scheduling is coordinated online, and volunteers can share their schedule availability based on what works for them, according to the American Cancer Society. Once a volunteer’s schedule is set, drivers can accept ride requests from people in their community who need help getting to appointments.
Nationwide, in 2023, the program provided more than 47,000 rides to treatment, according to the American Cancer Society. In Colorado, 1,400 rides were given last year.
Currently, there are 137 active drivers in the state, according to the Cancer Society.
But there is a shortage of drivers in Colorado, especially in the north metro area and in the state’s rural areas, said Sara Walla, regional director of regional integrated marketing at the American Cancer Society.
“We need more volunteers so we can help more cancer patients,” Walla said. “Unfortunately, we can’t provide rides to everyone who asks for them. We need more volunteers to change that.”
Rose, 71, said she has learned a lot from quietly talking to patients while she drives them to their appointments. “They handle what’s going on with them differently and I appreciate that. I don’t press them, and if they want to talk, I am happy to have a conversation.”
One patient especially shook Rose. “She was young and well made up and she asked me out of the blue ‘Does it look like I am dying?’ “
“I didn’t really know what to say, so I didn’t say much,” Rose said. “That’s all you can do sometimes. Is just listen.”
For more information go to: https://www.cancer.org/support-programs-and-services/road-to-recovery.html