Regular road trips out of the city may seem like a delightful retirement plan, but for Lions Cancer Institute members it’s about saving lives.
More than 30 Lions Club volunteers donate their time clocking up thousands of kilometres driving a bus throughout regional WA to provide free skin cancer screenings.
“There’s a real problem out there for people to go and get full body checks due to accessibility,” Screening Training director Colin Beauchamp said.
“All of these volunteers come out on weekends or mid-week.
“The bus has travelled as far south as we can go and as far north as we can go and when we go north we quite often do a 10-day run and they’re quite willing to come away and work with us for that time.”
Lotterywest has supported Lions Cancer Institute with two grants totalling $225,000.
Mr Beauchamp said so far they had screened about 80,000 people.
“That’s saved a lot of lives,” he said.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today without Lotterywest. The cost of setting up this unit is enormous,” he said.
“When you’re looking at $20,000 for a camera, plus the vehicle, and the fit out, without Lotterywest we just wouldn’t have been here.”
When you buy Lotto and scratchies from Lotterywest the profits are distributed back to the community through the Lotterywest grants program.