Canberra Region Cancer Centre staff with the donated Lennock vehicles. Photo: Canberra Hospitals Foundation.
For Canberra cancer patients without a car and without family available to drive them, the logistics of treatment can be time-consuming.
A half-hour oncology appointment might take up half a day, with hours spent on public transport.
Lennock Volkswagen dealer principal Rick Davis, whose father died of prostate cancer six months before his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, understands all too well that support during a cancer journey is all-important.
“My parents never had to worry about how they would get to or from their treatments,” he says. “We wanted to help.”
In September 2020, with support from the Canberra Hospitals Foundation and Volkswagen Australia, Lennock Motors launched the Patient Transport Program.
The dealership supplied a dedicated Volkswagen to the Canberra Region Cancer Centre. Its sole purpose was to transport patients who faced challenges getting to appointments; those who do not have family or friends able to assist and are not accessing other community or government support.
Run by trained centre volunteers, the service covers Canberra and Queanbeyan, operating Monday to Friday and shuttling patients to appointments. Lennock Motors handles all cleaning, refuelling and scheduled maintenance.
Patients accessing the program must be able-bodied, have no other viable transport options and meet the other criteria for the program. Volunteers coordinate pick-ups and drop-offs, now often carrying two or three patients at a time to keep up with demand.
“To give you one measurement of the impact of the service, it clocks up about 60,000 km per year,” Rick says.
From its small beginnings in late 2020, the program has grown into one of the Cancer Centre’s most relied-upon services. The car has completed about 1100 to 1500 trips per year since its inception, but from July 2024 to July 2025, that figure jumped to 2068 individual patient trips — an all-time high.
Ongoing evaluation shows a persistent need for transport support, one which Lennock Motors is committed to supporting.
“Our patients talk about the impact of the program all the time,” one Canberra Region Cancer Centre staff member says. “It’s hard to remember a time when we didn’t have the privilege of the car from Lennock. It’s been a game changer for so many of the more isolated patients and we are very grateful.”
For Rick, the program embodies what community support should look like — practical, consistent and grounded in empathy.
“We’re very proud to be able to offer this kind of meaningful help,” he says. “We have fundraising efforts as well, but this is a way we can have boots on the ground and make a very direct impact.”
For many, the Lennock Motors transport service isn’t just a ride — it’s the lifeline.
Lennock Motors is proud to support the impactful Cancer Patient Transport Program, assisting people in their local community.
