Lyft offering free rides for Las Vegas cancer patients
A popular ridesharing app will offer free rides to and from treatments for Las Vegas cancer patients in June.
Lyft will partner with the American Cancer Society to provide the rides as part of a pilot program that may later be expanded if enough people use it.
To sign up, patients should call the American Cancer Society at 800-227-2345. After that, receptionists at health care providers should be able to schedule rides for patients when appointments are set up.
Yacob Girma, general manager of Lyft Las Vegas, said patients will receive an alert about ride arrivals through the app if they have it on their smartphone. If not, an agent will contact them to let them know a driver is coming. Text message alerts will also let patients know the driver is ready to pick up.
Rides will not be available to pick up medications.
The company said a private donation from Las Vegas plastic surgeon Dr. Paul Lanfranchi helped Lyft offer the program.
Members of the public who are new Lyft users can enter the code “ACSVEGAS” in the app to receive up to $20 in ride credits and have the company contribute $10 to the ACS.
Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.
