Celebrating Our Volunteers
For Volunteer Appreciation Month this April, we're celebrating the people who make our work possible.
Last year, our volunteers drove 70,899 miles, provided 3,513 rides, and gave 2,271 hours to ensure cancer patients could get to treatment. Another 2,253 hours were given by volunteers who gathered auction items for our events, helped pull off Cancer Can't Take Christmas, provided $42,000 in gifts for families navigating cancer during the holidays, and kept our work moving forward.
To highlight just one of these incredible volunteers, meet Bruce Messling, who has been a volunteer driver with Cancer Can't since 2022.
Bruce came to Cancer Can't after moving back to Spokane from Georgia, after his wife passed away from cancer. "I was fortunate enough to be able to take her everywhere and be with her all the time," Bruce says. "But there were a lot of people I would see getting dropped off in taxicabs at the cancer centers. It's so impersonal. They need support."
Bruce googled “volunteer for cancer” and found Cancer Can’t. The driving program worked for him because of its flexibility: he picks his rides online and shows up when he can. What keeps him coming back is the people.
“Every ride is different,” Bruce explains. “Some people need help getting down the stairs. Some just want to talk about their families. You follow their lead and do whatever you have to do.” He listens when people need to talk and celebrates with them when they finish treatment.
One patient, a woman Bruce drove regularly, invited him to a celebration of her life before she passed. She gave each guest a small gift and made sure Bruce got a pin from an old Budweiser commercial because she knew he’d worked for Anheuser-Busch. When she died, she requested that Cancer Can’t reach out to Bruce personally to say thank you. “I was so honored,” Bruce says.
Bruce is honest about why he volunteers: “It’s purely selfish. I do it for myself. No matter what kind of mood I’m in, when I’m done with a ride, that feeling stays with me. It carries forward through the rest of my day. I really feel like I’m doing something good. And I know my wife would be proud.”
Want to learn more about becoming a volunteer driver like Bruce?
Join our Volunteer Team
