Clocking up the miles to help patients

Kind-hearted Highland Perthshire volunteers have travelled thousands of miles taking patients to get their Covid-19 vaccinations.

Members of the Upper Tay Transport Group (UTTG) have driven people to Perth, Dundee and even Glasgow for their hospital appointments and jabs.

Last week, one volunteer undertook a 120-mile round trip from the remote hamlet of Pubil near Glenlyon to the vaccination centre in Aberfeldy.

On his first ever outing for the group, David Gauld risked flooded roads to drive 30 miles to pick up the patient who needed to go to Aberfeldy Medical Centre for his jab.

Afterwards the driver took the patient back to Pubil before returning to his own home in Aberfeldy.

Eileen Merry, transport co-ordinator for UTTG, said it was an example of the hard work their volunteers had been carrying out during the pandemic.

“The drivers have given up hundreds of hours and clocked up thousands of miles,” said Eileen.

“David is our newest volunteer driver, it was his first assignment.

“It was probably around a five-hour drive and the roads were waterlogged and winding, so it was a lot harder than driving five hours on the motorway.

“But David was very happy to do it, which was wonderful.”

In the coming weeks the group also have a patient booked in who needs to be taken down to the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Glasgow and transported back the same day – a 180-mile journey.

UTTG has built up a roster of 50 drivers and during the pandemic they have transported anyone who needs help and is a patient of Aberfeldy Medical Centre.

For the vaccinations, they have been travelling between Aberfeldy and the vaccination hub in Pitlochry and also regularly take patients for their hospital appointments in Perth and at Ninewells in Dundee.

Eileen said: “Our average journey is about 62 miles to Perth, to Ninewells it’s 108.

“It’s pretty awesome and I feel very proud to be part of the organisation.”

UTTG have big plans post-lockdown as they attempt to become a travel hub for the local communities around Aberfeldy.

They are opening a base at the Locus Centre on the town square where anyone with transport difficulties can access them and their volunteer drivers.

“It’s pretty awesome and I feel proud to be part of the organisation

HEALTH DRIVE: Eileen Merry, co-ordinator of the Upper Tay Transport Group.