Media Release

Masons continue to support the Shirley Shuttle service

On a beautiful sunny morning, at Community Transport Central Coast HQ in Berkeley Vale, Freemasons on the Central Coast (FotCC)proudly posed with their latest donation to Shirley Shuttle fleet.

The Shirley Shuttle is named after Mrs Shirley Galvin who passed away in 2006. Shirley, after being diagnosed with cancer, endured the inevitable appointments for treatment which was time consuming and tiring with unpleasant after-effects, but she had the help of her daughter, Barbara.

During the many treatments that her mother received Ms Barbara Galvin meet many people who didn’t have family members or friends to provide the constant transport to the treatments. Barbara wanted to help which resulted in the donation of a Toyota Mini Bus to the Cancer Council of NSW which was based at Erina Fair. Eventually, as the demand for patient transport and maintenance of the vehicle increased, Community Transport Central Coast agreed to administer the service.

Central Coast Local Health District covers fuel costs, however, each vehicle requires replacement at around 100,000km (around every 2.5 years).

From 2009, Freemasons on the Central Coast have provided funds to purchase several motor vehicles to be used in the operation of the Shirley Shuttle.

This year, The Shirley Shuttle Cancer Outpatient Service Central Coast (affectionately known as The Shirley Shuttle) celebrates 15 years of service to local cancer patients and Freemasons on the Central Coast have donated $21,000 to meet the replacement cost of one of four Shirley Shuttle vehicles. This will enable the door-to-door service for ‘transport challenged’ cancer outpatients to attend oncology appointments to continue for at least two years.

On Friday 6 May 2023, several board members of FotCC attended the launch of the latest vehicles added to the fleet. Vice President of FotCC Jim Noble spoke of the on-going relationship with Barb Galvin and the Shirley Shuttle and said that the Freemasons on the Central Coast were honoured to support such a valuable community service.

Member for Terrigal, Adam Crouch, praised all those involved for their contribution to the service.

From late November 2018 to March 2023 the four Shirley Shuttles provided 51,125 trips to 3,649 individual clients over 1,023,716 km. More than 35,000 driver hours were volunteered, some of which were delivered during COVID lockdown periods in 2020 and 2021.

Barb Galvin said the service could not continue without the ongoing generosity of Central Coast Community Organisations such as the Freemasons on the Central Coast.