After a lifetime of delivering milk to farms in the Kawartha and Durham regions for more than 35 years, Trethewey is bringing the hope of life to people afflicted with cancer. More importantly, he is giving comfort with his heart.

He is a volunteer driver and the co-ordinator of a team of eight drivers with the Canadian Cancer Society Muskoka-North Simcoe Unit Gravenhurst branch, who provide more than just free transportation to cancer patients, he said.

With a smile on his face and bright, welcoming blue eyes, he said he does it for the people he meets. Every one of them he considers a friend.

Since he joined four years ago he has always seen his service as an integral component to the network of cancer care for people in the area.

As the sun rises above the horizon, bringing light to Gravenhurst on a holiday Monday morning, he pulls his minivan to the front of the church. He waves me over to the left side of the vehicle, where Bruce Stephenson, 78, sits on the passenger side, he will be consulted about his cheek. Next we head off to pick up Robert Watson, 75, and Howard Sampson, 84.

Trethewey, who also drives for the Red Cross, will travel more than 1,000 kilometres this week, and will have taken several more people like Stephenson, Watson and Sampson to hospitals and cancer care facilities all over Ontario, with most of the trips either to Toronto or Sudbury.

By the end of the week he will bring Sampson, Watson, and Bob Smallfield, 80, back from Toronto.

For Sampson and Watson they’ve been through more than 30 treatments and know the routine well. Both are asleep, tired from the week of radiation treatment for their prostate cancer.

For new client Smallfield, who stares out the van’s side window, chin in hand, his 39 treatments have only just begun. He says he likes the service because he can forget the drive and just relax on the trips.

On the return trips Trethewey usually drives in silence, scanning the road the way he has always done, observant with purpose, but still able to spot the little things; the oddities of the road and signs of the season, such as a near 1:1 scale of some dinosaur statue in someone’s backyard, the flocks of Canadian geese picking at the few exposed patches of tall grass, or the debris left behind by transport trucks.

Sometimes though, Treth­ewey has more to do than just drive and watch the world. He knows cancer is difficult, as he has lost a few family members to cancer himself.

Trethewey proudly shows me a book of photos of his children and grandchildren, including a few from his nine-week epic road trip across the continent.

He said this gets the dialogue started with the people he drives, particularly the new clients who are often apprehensive about the impending treatments and their own future. He always makes a point to schedule a few successive trips with the new clients so the adjustment is easier. He listens, shares laughs and opens his heart for those that open theirs to him.

“I usually let them initiate the talk, because a lot of them have a lot on their mind. The last thing you want to do is bother them,” he said.

When he first started, the hardest thing was discovering that two of his clients succumbed to cancer. He made a point of attending services for both and remains friends with the surviving family.

It’s been four years since he started driving for the society and he doesn’t see any reason to stop now.

He believes what he and his eight drivers, who all wait with their clients when they can, perform a service that is an integral component to the network of cancer care for people in the area. The need is always there for more drivers though, he reminds me.

The Canadian Cancer Society said one in three Canadians get cancer in their lifetime. Last year there were an estimated 159,900 new cases and 72,700 people died from it.

As a result of his professional experience, Trethewey knows the best rural routes to avoid the traffic to bring his clients home stress-free at the end of a week of treatments. He knows the conversations will be light as they will be tired and fatigued.

It’s usually the quiet times that he uses to unwind and to decompress from the stress and the emotional toll of opening his heart to the people who need his support the most.

He tells me, as we drive by a sign reading Hy-Hope Farms, he never lets negativity overshadow his journey to the health facilities.

While in Toronto at Princess Margaret Hospital or “The Lodge”, as it is referred to by those who use it, Trethewey ran into a past acquaintance. A week later he learned the same gentleman died because of a heart attack, completely unrelated to cancer.

The sudden shock of someone dying who appeared healthy caught him off guard.

Driving is what he does best and has done all his life since quitting a factory job more than four decades ago. It’s not the only thing though, as he is involved with various groups such as Gravenhurst Curling Club.

On Friday with the two of us alone on the way down to Toronto to pick up clients he had driven down earlier in the week, he tells me more about his continental road trip that showed him how amazing the world is by its expansive nature and the beautiful diversity of landscapes.

As we head back from Toronto with the minivan full, a smattering of conversations ripples through the cabin every now and then to break the prevailing silence, but as we near home the drive is quiet, broken intermittently by the passing of oncoming vehicles.

Taking the back roads the side windows fill with Ontario’s rolling hills and many farms that follow the meandering creeks and stretch to the distant horizon. As we pass Reach Street the song Against the Wind comes on.

After dropping Smallfield off Trethewey walks partway with him to the garage door and does as he always does with a new client — gives his business card with his home, mobile and cottage phone numbers.

“They can get me anytime they want,” Trethewey said. “I want people to think that I’m part of their family and know we work together. They’ve got a problem all they have to do is call me.”

Far from preaching Treth­ewey, matter-of-factly, said cancer doesn’t discriminate and everyone needs help.

“I drive doctors, lawyers and judges. Everybody gets it,” he said.

He is only too happy to oblige, as they all end up taking his van on the road of high hopes.

Contact information for volunteering and the service is (705) 684-8029.