Volunteers from Friends of Florence and members of Florence’s Man to Man prostate cancer support group gather to receive a $10,000 donation from the Oregon Urology Institute. From left to right are Warren Davidson, Nancy Walker, Fred Kolbeck, PT Smith, Clint Sherburne, Terry Fitzpatrick and Bob Horney. (courtesy photo)

Terry Fitzpatrick, the administrator at Oregon Urology Institute, presented a $10,000 check to PT Smith, president of Friends of Florence, earlier this month. The check is intended to help with the cost of transporting Florence-area men to Oregon Urology Institute’s Radiation Center in Springfield for prostate cancer radiation treatment.

Fitzpatrick’s presentation was made at the Nov. 10 Man to Man Prostate Cancer Education/Support Group meeting. Prostate cancer survivors Warren Davidson, Fred Kolbeck, Clint Sherburne and Bob Horney represented the men who have received free Friends of Florence transportation to the radiation center.

Nancy Walker, president of Van Fans, noted that more than $225,000 has been raised over the past 17 years to keep the Friends of Florence Van rolling.

Friends of Florence transported the first men to the radiation center for treatment in January 2008. Now, less than two years later, more than 50 men from the Florence area have received free transportation to the facility.

Consider this one impact that PT’s agreement with Terry to transport men to Springfield has had: Men receiving radiation treatment for prostate cancer average 45 trips to the radiation center. Those 160-mile round-trips equal 7,200 miles for each man’s course of treatment. By transporting the 50-plus men in the van instead of each man driving his own private vehicle, Friends of Florence has kept 360,000 extra vehicle miles off Highway 126 — all those miles in less than two years.

And, since the Friends of Florence Van was already taking radiation patients to Willamette Valley Cancer Center, the addition to that already-established route was just 10 miles per trip.

Just think how many extra vehicle miles the van has saved during the nearly 25 years of service beginning in May 1985 with four radiation patients.

As PT said in his acceptance of the $10,000, they have to fuel the van about every other day and now they can do that with smiles on their faces.

Smiling, too, are those who know of PT’s generosity, his dependable Friends of Florence Van and those fabulous volunteer drivers. No one is more appreciative of what PT started than the recipients of that free transportation to either Eugene or Springfield for radiation treatment.

Friends of Florence has gone a long way in making a tough time in those lives much easier to bear.