[Music]
Announcer: There is the News on Six at 5:00.
Craig Day: Volunteers are essential. In hospitals they can be an extra pair of hands and they can help patients through a difficult time by boosting morale or maybe just being good listeners.
Lori Fullbright: And this is National Volunteer Appreciation Week and News on Six reporter Rick Wells has found a super volunteer who does all that and more.
Rick Wells: John Fisher is a volunteer in the infusion ward at Cancer Treatment Centers of America’s hospital in Tulsa. He is talking to Herschel Van A. He is in for his chemo treatment. They are talking about taxes.
John Fisher: And I didn’t realize that.
Rick Wells: And this is what he does for hours every Thursday. He is a cancer survivor himself and it is his way of helping.
John Fisher: Once that they learn that I am a survivor of CTCA it opens up new things that we can talk about. Now I am doing great.
Rick Wells: Things like fear, discomfort and even success.
John Fisher: You know, it’s a two-hour, three hours.
Rick Wells: So you see there’s plenty of time to talk and he feels his job as a volunteer up here is to help patients pass that time and give them some positive to focus on.
John Fisher: We can lighten the burden on just one person that comes through here out of a 42 that we are going to serve today – one person. My time is well spent.
Rick Wells: Volunteering is volunteering after all; they don’t get paid but who says there’s not compensation?
John Fisher: There you are. How are you doing sweetheart?
Ann Wilkinson: You are a little Dickens, love you.
John Fisher: How do you do?
Rick Wells: Ann Wilkinson from Tahlequah is cancer-free now too. John works the room, get him water, offering ice cream or a blanket or perhaps just conversation.
John Fisher: Yes, as long as I have a chocolate chip cookie to go with it.
Rick Wells: And like most really good volunteers he downplays his contribution but the folks who work here recognize and appreciate him.
Julia Middleton: He is very hero. We always know it’s going to be a good day when he shows up.
Rick Wells: Rick Wells, The News of Six.
Lori Fullbright: John was diagnosed with cancer a little more than a year ago and began volunteering even while he was having treatment. He is now of course cancer-free but continues to help others who are battling the disease.