MEMBERS of Girvan Rotary donated £700 to the Community Action Network (CAN) recently.

CAN is the local facility, in the town that provides transport for locals suffering from cancer or any other condition which requires treatment at hospital. 

Those who are involved with the organisation rely on a pool of drivers who ferry the local patients to Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Ayr and sometimes Edinburgh. 

They are all volunteers where the drivers, who provide their cars, make sure their patients are delivered and picked up with the minimum of expense and delay.

Alistair Wallace, of Girvan Rotary, explained: “The Rotary caught two of the CAN shop ladies Mrs Una Jess and Mrs Sandra Smith waiting by the phone in their Girvan shop to arrange the transport of yet another grateful patient. 

“If you look in the window you will see a selection of newly knitted baby clothes, clothes knitted by volunteers. 

“Would any fit your daughter’s baby?

“The service in the last four months, and these are their quietest months, have delivered 100 patients to Glasgow, 34 to Kilmarnock, and 83 to Ayr, with only 18 driver volunteers.

“ They could do with about 10 more drivers. Could you manage a day a month to do something very worthwhile? If you can, then call into the shop in Dalrymple Street and put your name forward.

“ You will meet real people doing a really worthwhile job, a job that might be needed by relations of yours in the future.

“Una says if you call in, she will make you a cup of tea.”
The Rotary also raised cash at a recent BBQ which was held in the garden of Dr Jimmy Flowerdew. From the same event, £700 was donated to the Invergarven School and £700 to Quarries Girvan charities. 

Mr Wallace concluded: “The BBQ was a huge amount of work especially for Cecile, Dr Flowerdew’s wife, but I am sure that all saw their efforts go to very sound causes.”