When Lisa Mongell volunteered with the American Cancer Society’s Road To Recovery program to drive cancer patients to their treatments, she already knew first-hand what an important service she could provide. Two years earlier, she had driven a friend back and forth to her regular treatments, after she had been diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. The memory of spending so much time with her friend as she battled the devastating disease, then succumbed to it at the age of 44, moves Lisa to tears today.
“Her treatment schedule was very demanding, and it made me feel so good to be able to help her,” says Lisa of Johns Creek, who has been a volunteer driver with Road To Recovery for the past two years. “I would drive home after spending the day with her, and I would think to myself that it was the best feeling in the world, to be able to contribute by driving her back and forth from the hospital.”
So when Lisa saw a story in her local newspaper soon after her friend’s death, seeking volunteer drivers with the American Cancer Society’s Road To Recovery, she called right away and signed up.
“There are no words to describe how I felt when I lost my friend. I wanted to do something to help fill my void,” Lisa recalls. “Then I opened the newspaper one day, and the driver recruitment article caught my eye. I thought ‘That’s exactly what I want to do.’”
Kimbra Butler, the Society’s Transportation Solutions Manager for DeKalb and Fulton counties, says, “Lisa is just an awesome volunteer. She is so dedicated to the patients and to making sure they get to treatment. We need many more drivers like her.” She adds that the American Cancer Society provides training for volunteer drivers. Requirements include a valid driver’s license, a safe driving record, auto insurance and a vehicle that is good working condition. 
Lisa’s journey through cancer with her friend began when the two women’s daughters became best friends at school back in 2006. When her friend was diagnosed with cancer in early 2007, Lisa volunteered to drive her to her treatments at the Emory University Hospital to help the woman’s husband, who was caring for their four children and working. Lisa would get up at 4:30 a.m. to make the drive from her home in John’s Creek to her friend’s home in Woodstock. Over a three-month period, Lisa spent many days with her friend in the car and the facility where she was being treated.
Now, she transports as many patients as she can to their cancer treatments with the Road To Recovery program. She tries to drive every time there is a request sent her way – sometimes once a week, sometimes once every two weeks depending on the number of patient’s her volunteer group has, at a given time. Driving is occasionally divided between fellow volunteers, one will take the patient to treatment, and then another will pick up and return them home. Lisa says that many patients tell her they don’t know how they would get to treatment without the Road To Recovery program.
“You would be surprised how many cancer patients don’t have rides to their treatments,” she says. “If more people could volunteer, it would make such a difference. Even if these patients have family and friends who drive them some of the time, most don’t have someone who can drive them all of the time. That’s where I and other volunteers come in.”
She continues, “Our patients are wonderful and so appreciative of what we are doing for them,” Lisa says, “I would encourage everyone who has some extra time to get involved. It’s a very rewarding experience. All you need is a car to drive, and the willingness to help, in their time of need.”
To learn more about the American Cancer Society’s Road To Recovery program or to volunteer as a driver, contact Kimbra Butler, the ACS Transportation Solutions Manager for metro Atlanta at (404) 582.6132, kimbra.butler@cancer.org.
