It’s been nearly two years since Tracey Renaud’s teenage daughter, Diamond Lalonde, rang the bell at Toronto’s Sick Kids Hospital to signal the end of four months of treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma, but the mix of emotions she felt in that moment is never far from her mind.

There was relief, obviously, and joy, and gratitude. But there was also fear for her daughter’s health. There was deep exhaustion, the cumulative result of uprooting a family of six to live at a Ronald McDonald House more than 700 kilometres from their home in Cochrane, Ont. for weeks on end. And there was stress: She’d had to close her daycare business when Diamond was diagnosed, and her husband, Chris Lalonde, had gone on parental caregiver leave from his job, slashing the family’s income at a time when extra expenses were rolling in. It all meant that when the family returned to Cochrane, to bills and responsibilities and (in a bit of timing almost too darkly funny to believe) a flooded basement, the prospect of driving 10 hours each way for Diamond’s follow-up treatments felt like one obstacle too many. “We hadn’t processed anything,” Tracey says. “We were just in survival mode.” 

Diamond’s illness introduced the family to the significant, and often overwhelming, travel barriers that many Canadians face in accessing medical treatment. “We are lucky to have universal healthcare,” Chris Lalonde observes, “But the accessibility bridge is not always there.”

For the majority of Canadians, especially those living in major cities, relatively easy access to health care seems like a given. But for a significant share of the population it is anything but: According to 2024 research by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), some 9.1 per cent of people admitted into Canadian hospitals carry a high or very high travel burden, defined by the degree to which geography, age and/or urgency prohibits transportation to care. That translates to an annual tally of more than 250,000 Canadians for whom physical access to potentially life-saving treatment is costly, time-consuming and logistically challenging, if it’s available at all. “There are still a lot of people for whom care is out of reach, because the travel is just too cumbersome, or because they may not be physically well enough for the journey,” explains Tanya Nixon, National Director, Transportation, with the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS). “It’s just the reality of Canada,” notes Michael van Hemmen, General Manager of Mobility for Canada at Uber. “We have a smaller population and a lot of space between cities.”

In a large country where health services are unevenly distributed and reliable transportation is out of reach for many, experts say there’s a growing need for policies, programs and partnerships, such as a successful collaboration between Uber and Hope Air, that can help more Canadians get to and from the care they need. Consider what can happen when organizations come together to connect the dots.

Connecting rural and remote patients

Cases like Diamond’s are more common than many urbanites realize. Nearly 18% of Canadians live in rural areas, many of them hundreds of kilometres away from major centres. When it comes to primary care, the majority are a manageable drive away from family doctor or nurse practitioner. But attending to more complex medical needs, such specialist appointments, cancer treatment and surgeries, often means travel to a city. It’s rarely a straightforward trip: The CIHI report found that rural and remote Canadians requiring hospitalization are six times more likely than urban residents to face significant health transportation challenges.

The organizations working to fill the gaps know the problem well, including Hope Air, a 40-year-old national charity that provides patients and families in need with free travel and accommodations to and from treatments. Mark Rubinstein, the company’s Chief Hope Officer, joined Hope Air in 2020 after being activated by the organization’s mandate. “I was shocked that in a country as blessed as Canada we have thousands and thousands of people who have to make a terrible choice between putting food on the table or paying for travel to get to hospital treatment that isn’t available at home,” he says. 

In the six years he’s been with Hope Air, Rubinstein has seen firsthand the life-changing connections the team (which includes more than 350 volunteer pilots) is able to make possible. One milestone: In 2025, Hope Air completed a record 14,229 private and commercial flights for patients and caregivers to and from more than 700 rural, remote, or underserved communities across the country. “With our team and with our supporters, we’ve had a dramatic impact on the healthcare outcomes of thousands of people,” he observes. “And we’ve also made our healthcare system more effective and more efficient.”

Renaud first learned about Hope Air after the family had returned to Cochrane, just as she and Chris were struggling to figure out how they’d swing the drives to and from Toronto for the many follow-up appointments in Diamond’s future. A few phone calls later and the family had a hotel in Toronto sorted and a flight arranged from the small airport just a few kilometres away from their home. “I was in tears,” Renaud recalls “We were just so grateful that they were going to get us there.” Over the more than a dozen Hope Air trips that the family has taken since, they’ve forged strong bonds with the organization’s staff and pilots. “They’ve truly taken care of us,” Renaud says. “It’s been our saving grace.” 

Stories like these demonstrate what can happen when organizations take a different approach to transportation challenges, van Hemmen says. “The impact is real,” he observes. “Hope Air shows that it’s possible to both solve a real problem and provide a quality experience during a very emotional time.”

Enhancing the travel experience

For patients travelling for medical care, the journey doesn’t end on the tarmac. Getting to and from an appointment on the ground in an unfamiliar city can be daunting for those carrying the stress, exhaustion and worry of illness or caregiving. “It’s important to recognize that travelling for treatment is not like going on vacation,” says the CCS’s Nixon. “You’re trying to acclimate yourself to a new environment while balancing anxiety and the fact that you might not be feeling very well.” The volunteer drivers in the CCS’s Wheels of Hope program, who logged more than 8 million kilometres last year transporting eligible cancer patients to and from treatments, are trained to pay attention to the physical and emotional burdens of their passengers: “It’s so important to create comfort, provide understanding when it’s possible to do so and give people some grace, because they’re really going through something.”

That same spirit is behind the multi-year partnership between Hope Air and Uber. Called Hope Rides, the program provides patients and their families with no-charge Uber lifts to and from their appointments. In 2025, more than 5,100 rides took place under the program. “It’s meant to remove the stress of having to drive in a place you may not know very well,” says van Hemmen. “It removes logistical hassles that can add to cognitive load, like figuring out parking or navigating unknown streets.”

The partnership also includes Hope Meals, an initiative that gives travelling families Uber Eats vouchers to bring in restaurant meals and/or groceries to their temporary residences. “People don’t always think of the additional costs that can come from medical travel,” van Hemmen adds. “Never mind the time and energy it takes to find a store, buy groceries and make meals when you’re wanting to be by the side of a family member undergoing treatments.” 

These may seem like minor solutions for people facing big problems, but they can make a real difference. After Diamond Lalonde’s diagnosis, her father Chris says the family’s first instinct was to shut out the world. But once the family started to welcome help from others, including rides, accommodations and food from Hope Air and Uber, the situation began to feel manageable. “It was the difference for us being emotionally available to Diamond,” he says. “We’ve learned that happiness in recovery is so important, and the help we got was able to do that for us. That’s when the healing started.” 

For Diamond, who is now 17 and preparing to graduate high school as a music-loving honour-roll student, having access to small comforts has helped to create a sense of normalcy in an unfamiliar and  frightening situation. “Toronto has become like a second home to us,” she says. “It doesn’t feel as scary any more.”

Evidence suggests there are medical benefits to lightening the load: A 2020 review of nearly 500 studies found that interventions that cover the costs of travel to and from medical appointments improves healthcare participation and results in better outcomes for people with chronic diseases, especially among older adults.

Supporting Canadian seniors

In 2026, Canada is set to become a “super-aged” country: One in which at least 20% of the population is older than 65. By some projections, that share will be 25% by 2030. As individuals age, their health needs intensify (at least 80% of aging Canadians have at least one chronic condition; 33% have three or more) just as their ability to get around independently declines (accelerated by physical ambulatory challenges, driving cessation, social isolation and/or cognitive impairment, among other factors). The issues compound when spouses or friends are navigating their own health challenges, or adult children live far away. As a result, seniors often opt out of care they need: A 2023 study of Saskatchewan seniors found that more than 10% had cancelled a medical appointment due to high cost or unavailability of options to get there.

Experts say user-friendly transportation options can help more aging Canadians to and from medical appointments without infringing on independence. Van Hemmen points to Uber’s Senior Accounts, which employ a stripped-down version of the app to allow people who might not be confident with technology to book a safe and trackable ride. “It’s a simpler user experience,” says van Hemmen. “It’s meant to remove a burden for older adults, while also supporting caregivers and families.”

Finding better ways forward

As Canadians live longer, and as chronic illness diagnoses tick upward, experts say there’s a pressing need to scale medical transportation solutions that are proven to work. Increased government funding for programs known to work could help make that happen. (In some jurisdictions, like British Columbia, Hope Air’s services are covered by the province; in others, like Ontario, private, foundation and corporate donors foot most of the bill.) Harmonized policy that greenlights alternative modes of transportation could also expand access. (In Ontario, for instance, ride-share programs are legislated at the municipal level, which means options like the Hope Air and Uber partnership are unavailable in several cities.) 

Van Hemmen points to the 2024 Uber Economic Impact Report, which revealed that fully half of Canadian Uber riders use the app to get to or from a doctor’s appointment, 42% have used it in an emergency and one-quarter say the app is their only option to get to medical care. “When you think about people missing important appointments because of transportation issues, and when you think that there are efficient solutions on the ground, it’s hard not to make the case for governments and businesses to work more closely together,” he says.

For an issue that will only intensify, working together to get more sick Canadians to where they need to go, as comfortably as possible, is in everyone’s best interest, in the view of the CCS’s Nixon. “We may not be able to lift all the burdens of a family facing illness, but we can help lift the burden of transportation,” she says. “Because if you’re not able to get there, nothing else matters.”

This content was paid for and directed by Uber and was produced independently of The Logic’s newsroom in consultation with the advertiser. You can read our policies on advertising, sponsorships and partnerships here.