BOSTON (WHDH) - It’s not even 5 a.m. and Roger Medeiros is up and at ‘em.
He’s up before dawn to drive for an hour and meet someone he doesn’t even know.
Medeiros volunteers for Road to Recovery, a program that’s part of the American Cancer Society.
“I lost my wife back in March of 2007,” said Medeiros.
“I waited a couple of months and decided to retire but what am I going to do with myself?”
At 74 years old, Medeiros has been driving patients to and from chemotherapy treatments and hospital visits for ten years!
“You have to be somewhat sensitive and I have found that everyone of them have been pleasant,” Medeiros told 7News.
“I feel very good about it. I like to talk, I have a captive audience, they aren’t getting out of the car, and I like to listen to them.”
Medeiros’ passengers like to listen to him too. Michelle Bahret, a first time Road to Recovery passenger is battling stage four breast cancer.
Bahret’s mother, Mary Jane, typically drives her to treatments but after traveling with Roger, they’ll be using this program again!
“Usually it’s stressful to drive in ourselves just with traffic, or taking the wrong turn somewhere,” said Bahret. “Just having the conversation with Roger it is really nice.”
A relief for Michelle, her mother, and other patients at Dana Farber who use the service.
Bailey Smith, the Senior Resource Specialist at Dana Farber shared that the hospital gets about 25 request for rides every day.
Smith explained to 7news that, “Through chemo they can feel really sick and nauseous and it can be really sometimes dangerous for patients to get behind a car and drive a couple hours back home.”
It’s a selfless act and sometimes a waiting game for drivers, but Roger doesn’t mind, he spends his time meeting even more people!
“I am enjoying it, I do this for the fun of it. When I retired I wanted to do something that is useful and that I enjoy. I enjoy driving and I enjoy people,” said Medeiros.
Roger drives about 10,000 miles a year.
On top of this he is a tutor and volunteers at the American Cancer Society and at The Braintree Community Youth Center.
For more information how to volunteer as a driver for the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery program you can visit cancer.org or call 1-800-227-2345.
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