Clyde and Districts Lions club member James Whyte, along with his daughter Shannon Thomson and grandsons Asher Thomson and Jimmy Whyte, made their five-hour journey down the lake two years ago to raise money for the national Row for Life campaign which supported four charities including the one dear to Mr Whyte.
The Lions mobile skin cancer service, based on a similar service in Western Australia, rolled into Clyde last week, driven by Bill Batt, and Mr Whyte was there to see it arrive.
"Amazing," was the quiet retired farmer’s response to seeing his dream turned into reality.
Pushing on past naysayers and insisting on getting involved was all worthwhile when he heard 50 people a day had been seen on the bus in Queenstown in the past week and there were queues waiting for more checks
At the time he was having significant surgery for his own skin cancer treatment and that made him more determined to contribute to the Row for Life fundraising.
"I’m actually thrilled to see it come on board. We raised a reasonable amount of money which I’m quite proud of and I’m very, very thrilled to see it on board."
Mr Batt, who had also had melanomas removed, said the bus had been in Queenstown for three days last week and on Saturday he drove it to Palmerston from where it would continue travelling north.
At the moment there was one bus servicing the whole country but when a second one, which was under construction, was ready this one would stay in the South Island, he said.
The free checks were available to anyone and the doctors on board would refer those they believed needed further investigation.
Mr Whyte could not stress enough the importance of skin cancer checks and his delight at there being a free service that would go to wherever people were gathered.
"It’s just a real terrific service."
