Program takes cancer patients on Road to Recovery

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Kathy Miller of Arlington Heights sat inside Northwest Community Hospital near her home two years ago, feeling beaten down from radiation and chemotherapy treatments to treat her stage-four throat cancer.

Even worse, she felt guilty because her girlfriends, her son and her brother also were exhausted from caring for her and shuttling her to medical appointments.

That day Miller shared her dilemma with a hospital social worker, and the woman told her about the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery. The program provides free rides for cancer patients throughout the suburbs and the city who are traveling to and from treatments.

“At first I was a little nervous, but within the next few minutes I felt relaxed and taken care of,” Miller said.

Today her cancer is in remission, and Miller is now a Road to Recovery coordinator, matching drivers with patients who are shuttled to hospitals in Chicago, Winfield, Naperville, Elgin and anywhere else they need to go.

“Family members and cancer patients need to know this service is out there. Thankfully that social worker came to me, because I was too sick and my family and friends were so overwhelmed, we couldn’t even be proactive enough to look for such an option,” she said.

Road to Recovery is just one of many programs the American Cancer Society offers under its Patient Navigation Services umbrella.

The goal of all the programs, spokeswoman AmyJo Steinbruecker said, is to help cancer patients focus their energies on healing. Last year, the overall program assisted more than 34,000 new patients and caregivers in Illinois, the majority of whom were uninsured or on Medicaid.

Road to Recovery and other programs in Patient Navigation Services are fully funded through corporate and private donations generated through events like Relay For Life. Dozens of suburban high schools and community groups, such as Lake Park High School in Roselle, host the relays each year.

“This is where that money turns around to be used,” Steinbruecker said.

In addition, most Road to Recovery drivers donate not only their time, but their gas mileage.

That includes drivers like Bob Schwermer of Arlington Heights, who has been volunteering for 11 years since retiring from his own business.

“I decided to keep busy and give back to people, and that’s what I’ve been doing every day,” Schwermer said. “I think it’s a privilege.”

Sometimes Schwermer’s routes are short, to nearby hospitals like Northwest Community. But other times he drives patients to locations like University of Chicago Hospital or Edward Hospital in Naperville. There, he waits through their treatments before taking them home.

“We talk about everyday things, you name it,” Schwermer said with a laugh. “It could be religion, it could be politics. The idea is just to keep their mind off their troubles.”

Miller said volunteers like Schwermer succeed in doing just that, adding that she does not have words to describe how caring they are toward patients.

“You get the sense they are volunteering out of the goodness of their hearts to help, it’s hard to explain,” she said.

That’s why when Miller’s throat cancer went into remission last June, she, too, wanted to join their ranks. In a stroke of luck, she attended an American Cancer Society volunteer lunch and learned the Road to Recovery ride coordinator would be stepping down, and she was eager to swoop in.

Now she schedules drivers like Schwermer with patient drop-offs and pickups, saying it helps her feel like she’s creating balance.

“I wanted to give back because they had helped me,” Miller said. “ I also felt so blessed with how ill I was with cancer, that I had survived. I felt that there was a calling there for me to help others, too.”

Road to Recovery is seeking volunteer drivers. For details on ride or volunteer opportunities, call (800) 227-2345.