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It would be understandable for Ethel Adeleke to feel intimidated walking into her radiation treatments every week.
The big lettering on the side of the ValleyCare clinic in Pleasanton leaves patients like her under no illusions about where they are and why, spelling out “Regional Cancer Center.”
But walking up to the clinic on a recent morning, 69-year-old Adeleke is resolute and in good spirits, sustained by her faith in God, support from her family and friends and, on this day, the kindness of a near stranger.
About 45 minutes earlier, Jane Bueno, 77, of Fremont, volunteering through the nonprofit Drivers for Survivors, had arrived at Adeleke’s home in San Leandro to pick her up and take her to the appointment.
“It’s the most wonderful thing that can be done for a cancer patient,” Adeleke said of the service.
The program provides free rides for cancer patients in much of Alameda County to and from their medical appointments, from early-stage suspicious findings through the completion of treatments.
Bueno greeted Adeleke on a cool East Bay morning with a handshake and a hug, then helped her into the car and put her seat belt on before driving her 16 miles over Highway 580 to the radiation appointment.
Once in Pleasanton, Bueno accompanied Adeleke into the office and waited until she was done before bringing her back to the car.
They had only been acquainted for a short time, but Adeleke described Bueno and the other volunteer drivers as “wonderful people” who put patients like herself at ease.
“She prepares you. What Jane does is she gives you that comfort,” Adeleke said, noting how ominous it can be walking into a clinic to face a looming radiation accelerator machine or chemotherapy infusion room.
“You feel like, ‘I have a lot of support and I have a lot of comfort to know that there’s someone that cares about me,’ ” she said. “It’s not like you’re walking into that door by yourself.”
And it doesn’t hurt that Bueno tries to keep the mood light during the car rides.
“I try to laugh with them. I think it is good for them to laugh and take their mind from (cancer),” Bueno said of her time with clients of the service. “We talk about nothing to do with cancer.”
“She’s funny, she’s a kick,” Adeleke said of Bueno.
While driving people to their treatments may seem like a small deed, the massive weight of fighting cancer makes even dealing with simple things like arranging rides to and from appointments extra stressful. it’s a major relief for clients that empathetic volunteers ensure the safe and timely arrivals for clients, said Sherry Higgs, the founder of the nonprofit said.
“It is so profound,” she said. “To have somebody there for you in a moment of need like this is incredibly special. You’re basically a hero to people that are going through this.”
Higgs survived an aggressive inflammatory breast cancer after her diagnosis in 2010.
She recalled how she was “practically living” at doctor’s offices during her treatments. That’s when she noticed that many folks “didn’t seem to have a lot of people rallying with them” in waiting rooms. She was inspired to form Drivers for Survivors.
“It was hard for me to watch people going through that process without having more support,” she said. “(Having) people by their side, listening to them, being friends with them, and offering a companionship, that is priceless when you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“There are a lot more people who are alone, especially as we grow and age,” she said.
By December 2012, Higgs had launched the service, getting help securing county funding through Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, a grant from the city of Fremont, and a $50,000 donation from a private benefactor in the city, she said.
Initially, the program served people in the areas of Fremont, Newark, and Union City, then expanded to cover six other areas in 2017, including Hayward and San Leandro, and earlier this year expanded to the Tri-Valley cities of Pleasanton, Livermore and Dublin, Higgs said. To date, the organization has served 570 different patients, with 300 volunteer drivers completing 19,756 rides, she said.
But it’s not just the rides that matter, she said.
“It’s more about friendship matching than it is about anything else. I don’t want anyone to feel they’re alone when they’re going through the treatment. And that to me is the biggest piece of all of this,” she said. .
Drivers for Survivors has received funding this year from Share the Spirit, an annual holiday campaign that serves disadvantaged residents in the East Bay. Donations helped support 49 nonprofit agencies in Contra Costa and Alameda counties. The grant will help fund the 7th annual volunteer training and appreciation luncheon.
Higgs said she’s working on expanding the program to more areas of Alameda County, including Albany and Piedmont, and is hoping to have some office space donated in Oakland, which would help grow the program there.
“It needs to be expanded,” Adeleke said of the program. “There are so many people that don’t have anybody.”
Adeleke, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in April, said she has tried to maintain a positive attitude through her cancer journey.
When doctors found a two-centimeter tumor in her left breast, she named it Nikki, she said.
“I said ‘You know what, Nikki, it’s going to be me or you, and I’m afraid to tell you it’s not going to be me,’ ” she recalled.
During her chemotherapy, she relied on friends and family to take her to and from her treatments. But eventually some of them needed to go back to their work and families.
After she had surgery to remove the tumor, Adeleke needed to find another way to get to a month’s worth of radiation treatments.
Ride hailing services such as Uber or Lyft would have cost her about $1,000, she estimated, and a friend reminded her about Drivers for Survivors. She said the people have been “wonderful.”
“These are people that I don’t know, yet they reached out to me and they cared for me and loved me, and they picked me up,” she said. “It was very emotional for me.”
Share the Spirit
The Share the Spirit holiday campaign, sponsored by the Bay Area News Group, funds nonprofit holiday and outreach programs in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
To make a tax-deductible contribution, clip the coupon accompanying this story or go to www.sharethespiriteastbay.org/donate. Readers with questions, and individuals or businesses interested in making large contributions, may contact the Share the Spirit program at 925-472-5760 or sharethespirit@crisis-center.org.
