PMC Volunteer Hero

(June 1, 2012) - This week's Billy Johnson Community Hero, like most of our heroes, spends much of his free time helping others.  Paul Thompson is one of the many volunteers at Pikeville Medical Center.  In fact, he was recently named "Volunteer of the Year" at PMC...an award that Mr. Thompson said he had no idea he had won.  "I was very surprised.  I'm not much for awards," explained Mr. Thompson.  "I'm here for the patients.  I enjoy visiting the patients."
     Mr. Thompson, who makes the drive two to three times a week to Pikeville from the Williamson, West Virginia area, says he has been visiting hospital patients since he was 15 years old.  He explained that a serious injury several years ago showed him how much visits from volunteers can mean to a patient.  "I got hurt in 1973 and have been hospitalized in and out for many years," he recalls.  "I know how it feels to lay in a bed without any company...without anybody coming by to say hello, and just seeing the nurse."
     He says being in that position is lonely, and he doesn't want patients to experience that.  And, the patients that Thompson visits are also in the middle of a battle for their lives.  He spends his time with cancer patients in the hospital and those receiving treatment at the Leonard Lawson Cancer Center.  Mr. Thompson says the visits with the patients mean as much to him as they mean to those he visits.  "You gain a whole lot more than you give," he explained.  "You see the hurt and destruction of cancer.  I visit mostly cancer patients.  You see all the suffering, and it makes you so thankful that you are as well off as you are and able to get out and do something."
     Congratulations, Mr. Paul Thompson, this week's Billy Johnson Community Hero!