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Cancer patients get lift, literally, from volunteer drivers across St. Louis

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - 11/28/2019

Nov. 28--For 17 years, Steve Schnelle has dealt with cancer -- the ups and downs of treatment, side effects, scans, recurrences. He was just 44, with four children at home, when he was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in his tongue.

The cancer went away and came back, then went away and came back again. For now, he is in remission; every two weeks he heads to Mercy Hospital St. Louis in Creve Coeur for immunotherapy.

Through all that time, a consistent concern for Schnelle, who is blind, was how he would get to his appointments.

It's a common problem. More than 1.7 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer each year, and up to one-fourth of them have missed a medical appointment, according to the National Cancer Institute. The nonprofit Pink Ribbon Girls found that three out of 10 women with breast and gynecological cancers don't have a ride to treatment.

"I probably spend 20% of my time juggling transportation for people," said Kathy Bartholf, a social worker at Siteman Cancer Center in St. Peters. "It really is the base of treatment. If you can't get here, we can't treat you."

Skipped appointments lead to poorer outcomes and increase the likelihood that patients will miss again in the future.

Schnelle, who lives in Florissant, often found himself scrounging for rides -- asking family and friends before giving in to his last resort, public transportation.

"It's not punctual, it's not dependable and it's very uncomfortable," said Schnelle, 61. "It's like riding a buckboard ... when I was doing chemotherapy, it was just miserable."

About nine months ago, a friend told Schnelle about Road to Recovery, an American Cancer Society program that matches cancer patients who need rides with volunteer drivers.

It is one of several options, including Pink Ribbon Girls and St. Louis County's Neighbor Driving Neighbor, that provide free transportation to medical appointments.

But any cancer patient -- regardless of age, disability, income or type of cancer -- is eligible for Road to Recovery.

"We have a wide range of patients. Cancer affects everybody," said Chantel Waller, the cancer society's program manager for mission delivery in Missouri.

Road to Recovery launched 30 years ago and has a stable of 10,000 volunteer drivers nationwide. In Missouri, though, there are only 80 drivers across the state, with 28 from the St. Louis region.

It's not for a lack of need.

Last year, almost 13,000 ride requests were logged in the St. Louis area. Volunteer drivers were able to cover just 539. Unfilled requests get filtered to Road to Recovery partners, such as Lyft or the United Way. Demand increases in the winter months, when folks are more skittish about driving with the potential of bad weather.

Older patients and those with physical disabilities, such as Schnelle, are frequent passengers. So are people in rural areas and those without access to public transportation.

But sometimes it's the accumulated drain of chemotherapy or radiation that forces someone who had been driving themselves to look for alternatives.

"After their first or second round of treatment, it really hits them," said Waller. "They might need one or two rides to get them through. Some patients, especially radiation patients, have two or three months booked."

Patients can call Road to Recovery to request assistance, or set up rides through a social worker at their treatment center.

Volunteer drivers schedule their trips using a special software program, not unlike that of ride-hailing companies. They can choose rides at their convenience, with no minimum commitment required.

Roberta Feinstein of Olivette began driving for Road to Recovery about eight years ago.

"I thought it was hard enough to go through what they were going through without worrying about getting to treatment," said Feinstein, a retired court reporter.

She sees some passengers just once; others have become regulars, including a woman from Kansas City who moved in with her daughter in St. Louis to get treatment.

This month, Feinstein picked up Charlotte Bellmyer of St. John for the first time for an appointment at Mercy. Bellmyer, 63, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, has no family in the area.

Like Schnelle, she has had to resort to cabs and Metro Call-A-Ride in a pinch.

"It's just tiring being on a ride that long," Bellmyer said of the paratransit service. With Road to Recovery drivers, "It's faster to get home. We can make small talk. It's really nice."

And getting to treatment consistently isn't just a physical necessity, said Kathy Bartholf, the Siteman social worker. It's an emotional relief.

"That's one thing you don't have to worry about, one thing you can cross off the list," Bartholf said. "I can't promise to make your bills go away, but I can promise to get you here."

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