Bathurst Community Transport (BCT) yesterday celebrated the second anniversary of the special service.

The bus, driven solely by volunteers, makes the journey from Daffodil Cottage to Orange Base Hospital five days a week, 51 weeks a year.

BCT manager Leonie Schumacher said yesterday the only reason the bus continued to exist was the ongoing generosity of the local community. 

She said one of the gifts the bus gave to cancer patients was their independence, because it meant they didn’t have to rely on family members and friends to drive them to Orange each day for radiation treatment.

Often the thought of driving themselves five days a week for eight weeks or more is overwhelming.

Tina Lee was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. Her diagnosis came on the heels of a trail of family heartbreak.      

Before undergoing radiation, Ms Lee, a mother of three, had four months of chemotherapy.

“It took a lot out of me,” she said. 

“My husband took as much time out as he could, but he was working. I could get the children to school, but that was it.

“I still faced six weeks of radiation. When I was told I had a place on the radiation bus, it made it easier to do what I had to do.”

Jim Hudson faced eight weeks of radiation for prostate cancer with no family to help him.

He said travelling on the bus allowed him to relax before his treatment and calm down again before he got home. 

Now he is throwing himself into his life every morning and resting in the afternoon. 

“I’m back into my routine,” he said.

Councillor Monica Morse was also grateful for the radiation bus because it meant she didn’t have to travel all the way to Sydney for treatment.

“You wouldn’t believe it, but it was actually a happy time,” she said.

She said three things marked the hours she spent riding the radiation bus: courtesy, kindness and camaraderie. 

“No matter how wobbly he was, there was one gentleman who always helped everyone down the steps of the bus,” she said.

“The kindness was extraordinary, and the camaraderie was great.

“We all ended up friends. There was a feeling that we were all in it together and we enjoyed it.”

Ms Schumacher said if it wasn’t for the community – all the service groups, clubs, businesses and individuals supporting the organisation for the past two years – there would be no radiation bus. 

Reliance Credit Union has sponsored the bus to the tune of $10,000 this financial year and pledged $15,000 for the following two years, and yesterday the University of Western Sydney announced it will once again donate $10,000 to the cause, adding to the $20,000 it has contributed over the past two years.

Ms Schumacher said the generosity of these organisations meant the bus would be guaranteed to run until June 2017. This elicited an enormous cheer from the crowd.

“When we started, we were $18,000 short of meeting one year’s running costs,” she said.

“The Western Advocate ran a story for us and within four days we had the money. 

“That says something about this community.”