Living in the San Juan Islands, surrounded by so much natural beauty and a strong community is a gift and a privilege, but also comes with a unique challenge: transportation.

A cancer diagnosis is one that no individual wants to receive, especially when many treatments are accessible only on the mainland. But there’s a network of support across the San Juans to help ease the burden of travel and help get patients to where they need to be.

Orcas Island Mercy Flights have several volunteer pilots who happily take to the sky to fly cancer patients to medical appointments, thereby reducing ferry and vehicle travel to mere minutes.

Pilots mostly fly patients requiring radiation treatment to either Friday Harbor, Bellingham, Mount Vernon or Anacortes. Fuel costs range from $35 to $50, and pilots can be reimbursed half the expense from a fuel-fund supported by donations. All pilots are volunteers, and more are always needed.

“We love to have pilots who want to do something to make them feel really good,” Mercy Flights Coordinator Audrey Wells said. “It’s very rewarding.”

Mercy Flight pilots are willing to go above and beyond, too. Sometimes they take patients beyond the 25-mile radius for flights if cleared by the organization’s treasurer, and other times they may provide ground transportation if the weather prevents flying.

For example, mid-fall last year it was too foggy to land in Anacortes, where a pilot was schedule to land with a dialysis patient. So the pilot flew to Skagit Airport instead, where he keeps a car, and then drove the patient to her appointment. Another pilot was supposed to pick the woman up, but since it was still too foggy to land that pilot picked the patient up by car and he drove her home from the ferry landing.

For more information about Mercy Flights or to arrange a flight, call 376-3201 or 317-4086.

The Orcas Island Cancer Support Group, led by Bogdan and Carol Kulminski, meets the second Thursday of each month in the fireside room of Orcas Island Community Church at 5 p.m.

“Research shows that if you have a support group in what you’re going through you have a better chance for surviving,” Bogdan said. “The treatment and recovery process will be so much better.”

The support group offers a confidential atmosphere where patients, survivors, caregivers and family members can voice fears and concerns openly. The group strives to create a positive atmosphere, where participants will leave feeling elevated.

“We try to work on the hope part,” he said. “We want to keep people up.”

For more information on the support group call 376-4198.

Many Orcas Island residents will know of Lahari as the hospice facility located in Deer Harbor.  That facility closed a few years ago when it became clear that those residents who were in need of hospice care preferred to obtain it in their home surroundings.

The Lahari Board of Directors moved through a planning process and developed a new mission: to provide education, resources and support to assist aged or infirm people with living on Orcas Island up to and including provision of hospice care.

For more information, go to http://www.laharionorcas.org or call 1-888-685-1475.

The Orcas Community Resource Center administers money through the Orcas Tatas fund to provide ferry tickets for those who have to go off-island for medical appointments and can’t afford the ticket price. Orcas Tatas was started by the late Marlene Dickey. For more information, go to www.orcascrc.org or call 376-3184.

The Cancer Care Center at Peace Island Medical Center has brought services once only available off-island to Friday Harbor.

The center provides infusion and specialty services, chemotherapies, biologic medications, specialized injections, blood transfusions, central line maintenance and labs, prophylactic phlebotomies, chemo education, and chemo survivorship appointments by teleconference.

The Medical Center recently began providing reiki, reflexology and jin shin to its patients during infusion, at no extra cost. The service is possible through a grant from San Juan Community Foundation. PIMC also provides free taxi rides, between the ferry and the hospital, in partnership with Round Towner Taxi Service.

Soroptomist International of Friday Harbor also help coordinate transportation for patients seeking care outside of PIMC services. The Cancer Treatment Transportation Project provides ferry tickets and transportation by car. Soroptomists also coordinates with the San Juan Eagles to provide