Volunteer stories

Christine Stone volunteered as a driver with the Community Car Scheme for just over 2 years.

Christine Stone

Christine moved to the Fort William area after living in Nepal for 33 years. She wanted to volunteer in a role that allowed her to use her vehicle for more than just her own needs. Christine said ‘After a short time of volunteering with the car scheme, I realised that there was a lot more to it than just driving.  You are free to do as much or as little as you can, and can fit your driving around other things – this makes it very simple. Now I find it really easy to navigate the area and am involved in helping lots of different people, which is great. The office staff and other drivers are all very supportive and great fun to work with’.

Sadly, Christine died in early 2018.  We wanted to keep this little story on here as a tribute to her enormous generosity and passion for volunteering.  She was a wonderful advocate for the Community Car Scheme and is very sadly missed by our clients, staff members and other volunteers. We are very proud that she volunteered with us, right up until her health dictated that she could no longer do so.

Davie Kerr is an ex-Policeman, and grew up with the “helping others” ethic in his background.  When he heard that the Community Car Scheme were looking for volunteer drivers, he thought ‘why not!’  Davie says “I have always enjoyed driving anyway, and I reckoned that , if less fortunate people can be helped  by me enjoying myself, it’s a win-win, isn’t it?  Luckily, I know the area pretty well, and with my background, have no qualms about driving in all weathers and at any time of day, if the occasion demands it. As I live very close to the Corran Ferry, I tend to be first on call for anyone from the Ardgour side of the water who needs the services of the Car Scheme.

I thoroughly enjoy driving for the Car Scheme.  As a pensioner, I can sort out my time around my car scheme duties and I meet some very pleasant and interesting people along the way.  I think the car scheme provides a very necessary service in the area, especially as we have so many older people who live quite far way from public transport routes, and I encourage any public-spirited individual with some available spare time to consider joining us – we can never have too many volunteer drivers!”