it's a ride with a cause and the
destination just as important as the
journey for Debbie Wilson getting to her
chemotherapy appointments can be a real
challenge side-effects from her
treatments make it very difficult to
drive Jamie
Edmonds has the story that Debbie
doesn't have to do it alone on her road
to recovery it's just before 7 a.m.
and the Sun is just starting to awaken
but Greg Krawczyk has been up for a
while
he lives in Plymouth and he promised
Debbie Wilson he would pick her up at
7:15 sharp in Westland
good morning how are you Roszak is never
late Wilson is always ready the
destination is predetermined but this is
not Ober or lyft
no money will be exchanged do you feel
like you're on their journey yes I do
in this case the journey has a much
bigger meaning debbie has stage 3 breast
cancer and is in her second round of
chemo treatments this is not a drive she
could make herself I can't take myself
because once I have the chemo and
everything they give me I forgot what
they give me and it makes me drowsy and
really able to drive myself back enter
Greg who is a volunteer driver with the
American Cancer Society's road to
recovery program the courage and the
strength that ordinary people have in
the face of a very serious diagnosis is
I'm always impressed by that because you
strength of course the program pairs
patients who can't get themselves to
their treatments with drivers who want
to help according to the American Cancer
Society's Rachel Cooke transportation is
the biggest barrier patients have cancer
patients are often traveling to
treatments for up to six months
sometimes certain patients are going
everyday for six weeks so they could
easily need 30 rides the way the program
works drivers volunteer to help and
after background checks and training
they go online to get matched you can
choose how much or how little you want
to drive you can even pick the time you
want to drive you can pick the distance
that you would prefer to drive and the
distance that you're driving the patient
from the their home to the hospital
so it's not a matter of having a fixed
schedule from the patient's point of
view they also register with the
American Cancer Society tell the
organization what rides they need and
when the service is free of charge
last year the program provided 16,000
rides to patients in Michigan but they
were still unable to fulfill some
requests Cook says locally there are 75
volunteer drivers throughout southeast
Michigan and they still need more there
is such a need here in southeast
Michigan we have about 45 percent of our
rides go unfulfilled so 1,600 went
unfulfilled in 2017 Cooke says they
always can count on Greg Greg is
fantastic he has actually provided since
joining our program as a volunteer in
November of 2016 he has provided 350
rides to patients in the area for Debbie
she started out relying on family and
friends to take her to her treatments
but she felt she was getting to be too
much of a burden when she found out
about road to recovery she gave it a
shot and she and Greg hit it off
you're a pleasure to drive young lady
thank you I tagged along for one of
their 20-minute rides to Beaumont
Hospital in Dearborn
they tell me they usually talk weather
or sports who's your tiger who's my
tiger Cabrera's they agreed to talk to
us to hopefully inspire others to
participate in this life-changing
program okay I'll see you at 11 then
isn't that wonderful such a tease yeah
let's hope they get some more drivers
yeah Greg we just retired and he wanted
to help he was touched by cancer and his
family and he said you can drive as much
or as little as you want and they need
the help
yeah what a great way to give back