A VOLUNTEER-based transport service to take cancer patients to hospital appointments has been lauded for easing the pressure on people during the most difficult periods of their lives.
Liam’s Lifts is a community-based transport service which was set up in the Fermoy/Mitchelstown area in 2011 to help oncology patients attend appointments in Cork.
The service was established by Triona O’Flynn in honour of her late father Liam, who passed away, aged 66, after a battle with cancer.
Triona has created a network of volunteers who are willing to drive people to appointments in Cork and drop them back to their doors.
The service was expanded this year to cover the Mallow area.
Speaking at the launch of a fundraising classic at Fermoy Golf Club, Triona said:
“Dad passed away in 2009 and it was around the time when he was sick that we saw the need for a service. We met people who were taking buses and taxis and, unfortunately, there were people who couldn’t get to treatment because they had no transport.”
“There are so many appointments when you’re having cancer treatment. It’s not just the typical chemotherapy and radium therapy – there are a whole range of treatments. People ring me and you can just hear the pressure lifting in their voices when they know they have someone to take them to an appointment.”
Volunteers use their own cars to drive people to Cork for treatment and they wait to take the patient back to their home afterwards.
Triona paid to tribute to her late father, Liam, who was the inspiration for the service.
“It means a lot to us. My father loved giving people lifts. He loved chatting and getting to know people. Had he survived, he would have loved to have been involved.”
“He was a great dad, a great man. It nice to have this as his legacy.” she said.
Triona also thanked the members of Fermoy Golf Club for organising a fundraising classic for Liam’s Lift, due to take place on Friday, August 14. The cost to enter is just €30 for a team of three.
Triona said: “To be able to tell people that the service is free of charge, thanks to events like this one, makes a huge difference.”
*Caption: Triona O’Flynn, founder of Liam’s Lift; John Morrison, vice captain of Fermoy Golf Club and Violet O’Riordan, Lady
President, with volunteers and club members at the launch of a fundraising classic for the community-based transport service
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“Without Liam’s Lifts I was stuck. I couldn’t get to treatment. Public transport just couldn’t get me there and I wasn’t allowed to drive. There was no way I was going to be able to travel up and down.”
Those were the words of cancer survivor Kevin Wilcox, who heaped praise on the Liam’s Lifts volunteers who made it possible for him to attend his oncology appointments in Cork city.
Kevin, from Glanworth, was battling a brain tumor in 2012 and needed to travel to Cork every day for six weeks for radium therapy.
He said: “Living in Glanworth made things particularly difficult for me. The hospital gave me a leaflet with Liam’s Lifts on it. I rang Triona. In those days there was a cost for the service but Triona told me to forget about the money. She said we could worry about the money afterwards. “Without Liam’s Lifts I was stuck. It was an invaluable service. I was quite amazed at the number of people I met who were in a similar position,” he said.
Another beneficiary of the Liam’s Lift service was Eamon Fitzgerald, who used the service in 2014.
He said: “It was a brilliant service. I didn’t know about until I was being treated. I was struggling big time. What a relief to be able to lift the phone and somebody would collect you at your door.
“It’s such ease of mind because the treatment is so severe. You are dropped back to your door and you just want to get into bed after the treatment. I think it is absolutely fantastic.”
“Nobody realises the pressure that a patient can be under. It’s a huge commitment to get somebody who can drive you every day for treatment.”
Anyone interest in volunteering for Liam’s Lift or anyone who needs the service can contact 0867257218.