Press release

For immediate release / Thursday, November 22, 2012
For further information / Rebecca McIlhone
Contact number / 0117 3012624 07525 128297

Somerset charities work together to provide 4x4 support to cancer patients

Emergency response charities the British Red Cross and Wessex 4x4 Response are working together to get flood-affected oncology patients to hospital for vital cancer treatment.

The Red Cross has a contract with Somerset PCT to transport people from Somerset to Bristol and Taunton hospitals for cancer treatment but widespread flooding across the region has made some of those journeys difficult or impossible.

Tracey Miller, Red Cross care in the home team leader in Somerset, says: “Our volunteers can take anywhere between 25-40 people a day, providing transport in their own cars. Yesterday we had 30 people scheduled and some are classed category one, which means missing even one day of treatment could be life-threatening.

“Thanks to our determined transport and escort volunteers and the volunteer drivers from Wessex 4x4, most of the trips still took place and all the category one patients who were well enough to travel made it to hospital.”

Wessex 4x4 Response was set up more than eight years ago and now has more than 100 drivers spread across Avon and Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire. The volunteers are on standby to provide support when communities are hit by snow, gales, floods or other emergencies using their own vehicles and giving their own time to transport personnel and supplies to hard-to-reach areas.

The British Red Cross has more than 100 emergency response volunteers in Somerset ready to respond immediately to major emergencies. It also provides short-term care and support in the home for people after an accident or illness.

For more information on the British Red Cross please visit:

To find out more about Wessex 4x4 Response visit:

ENDS

Notes to editors

The British Red Cross helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. We are part of a global voluntary network, responding to conflicts, natural disasters and individual emergencies.

We enable vulnerable people in the UK and abroad to prepare for and withstand emergencies
in their own communities. And when the crisis is over, we help them to recover and move on
with their lives.

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