NEWS VOICES
Welcome to News Voices, a weekly feature where members of the WVIA News team will talk with each other — and sometimes sources — about key things we've learned in recent stories we have been working on.
Today Kat Bolus sits down with Lydia McFarlane to discuss her recent story on the American Cancer Society's Road to Recovery program.
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KAT: You're listening to Morning Edition here on WVIA radio, I'm Kat Bolus, and this is News Voices. I'm here with Lydia McFarlane.
LYDIA: Hey Kat, thanks for having me.
KAT: Thanks for joining us. You did a story recently on the American Cancer Society's Road to Recovery. Can you tell me a little bit about what that program is?
LYDIA: Road to Recovery is a program that exists in the continental United States. It provides free transportation for individuals that are battling cancer. So, they have an online ride request database situation, so people that need rides to their appointments can go and request a ride through that forum, and then it will be fulfilled, hopefully, by a volunteer driver.
KAT: Is it rides to appointments, treatment, all of the above?
LYDIA: Yeah, so it's all of the above. One of the individuals that I spoke to, he is currently finished with his radiation treatments and goes about every six weeks for checkups and X-rays to check on where the cancer is and if it's staying in remission. So he still gets rides through Road to Recovery, even though he's just going for checkups and not necessarily treatment anymore.
KAT: So one of the interesting statistics that was in your story was from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. They say that health-related transportation insecurity is common. So what is health-related transportation insecurity?
LYDIA: Yeah, so, absolutely, when people are battling diseases like cancer it can inhibit their ability to drive. So the individual that I spoke to had brain cancer. Now ... his transit insecurity was not health-related. He actually usually got around with public transit even before his diagnosis. When it comes to getting to appointments, they might not be able to take themselves anymore or after getting an intense radiation treatment, they might not be strong enough to get themselves home after. So it definitely stands in the way of them being able to have that autonomy over getting themselves to and from appointments.
KAT: The American Cancer Society lost 60% of their drivers in this Road to Recovery program during the pandemic. So what are they doing to recruit more drivers into this program?
LYDIA: So they had to pause during the pandemic just because of safety. But when they resumed the program after the pandemic was over, they found that, like you said, they lost 60% of their volunteer base. So now they're just trying to get the word out about the program and raise awareness and let people know that, hey, this is a great program that we need drivers for. And there's a statistic in my story that here in Luzerne County, there were more than 1,000 rides requested through the program in 2024 and only 600 something were fulfilled. So under 60% were fulfilled. So that's still a lot of people that aren't getting the transportation that they need through the program. You can check on the road to recovery website for all of the information regarding how to volunteer, which I do have linked in my digital story as well.
KAT: So they have 27 drivers in their Northeast Pennsylvania area, and that includes eight counties. So I just pulled three of those counties out: Sullivan, Pike, Wyoming. So when I think of those three counties, they're very rural. So is there more of a need in rural counties versus somewhere like Luzerne or Lackawanna?
LYDIA: I'd say definitely and this is an issue that has come up in the reporting I've done on rural health care, not just this Road to Recovery program. So here in Luzerne County, you have the Henry Cancer Center in Wilkes-Barre. So people that are requesting rides through Road to Recovery, you know they might be going from Pittston to Wilkes-Barre or Scranton to Wilkes-Barre. But people in those more rural counties might have to travel up to 45 minutes to treatment, and they might not even have the option to take public transit. So there absolutely, I would say, is more of a need because they're traveling farther distances and don't have an alternative. And also, if they wanted to take something like an Uber that's going to be way more expensive than if someone from Pittston or Scranton or Avoca was traveling to the Henry Cancer Center in Wilkes-Barre.
KAT: So Lydia's story is available on our website, wvia.org. Lydia, thanks for joining me,
LYDIA: Kat, thanks for having me.
READ MORE ABOUT THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY'S PROGRAM: Transport program for cancer patients seeks 'more hands on deck' as need outpaces volunteers
