Holding balloons to celebrate the St John Health Shuttle reaching 100,000km are St John volunteers (from left) Robert Williams, Alistair Price, Joanne Fox and Kaye O’Brien, among other volunteers and managers also celebrating. Photo: Linda Robertson
One hundred thousand kilometres can get you around the world about two and a-half times.
A Hato Hone St John health shuttle has not made it around the world, but it has made it 100,000km around Dunedin dropping patients to and from medical appointments for the past three years.
Yesterday, volunteers and managers of Hato Hone St John Dunedin celebrated the health shuttle reaching 100,000km.
Volunteer team manager Patrick Quinn said the milestone was significant because the shuttle allowed people to get to their medical appointments that otherwise they might not have been able to.
“It means that they can still keep a little bit of their independence and they can get to their healthcare appointments.”
The shuttle was driven by sixteen volunteers five days a week who did two to three shifts a month, Mr Quinn said.
“Since we launched we’ve never not been able to run the shuttle over a day.
“We’ve built it up and they go above and beyond basically to make sure that people get to their appointments.”
The shuttle had been funded by the Dr Marjorie Barclay Trust.
ben.andrews@odt.co.nz
