"You get to the stage where you've got to drop some things, and this is one of them."
Being part of the service for a half-century came as a bit of a surprise.
"I couldn't believe it.
"The only reason I know it's 50 years is that my youngest son was two when we started it and he's now turned 52, so I thought, 'oh it's 50 years'."
Anna gained a lot of enjoyment from being involved with the society.
"You meet so many interesting people.
"We did have one driver who had been a chauffeur for Parliament."
The service started half a century ago when a meeting was held between the churches in Waikanae and Paraparaumu.
There was a lack of public transport available for people when they needed to go for a medical appointment, such as in Wellington Hospital.
"If people wanted to go to Wellington Hospital, they had to catch the Newman's bus that came from New Plymouth or the Hawke's Bay - that was the only way to go.
"And basically we came under the Manawatū hospital board, because we were on the northern side of the Waikanae River, although that was changed.
"And the only X-ray facility was in Ōtaki."
During the meeting, two attendees – Anna, and the late Eileen Johns – were asked if they would like to be the telephone coordinators.
Back then the society was simply called Samaritans, before changing years later to Kāpiti Carers.
"We had family so we didn't need to go out and drive, just answer the phone, but at the same time, we had to look for drivers.
"The majority of drivers were all playcentre mums, believe it or not.
"It worked out well, because the majority of people were going up to Ōtaki for X-rays, so you just put your kids in the car, picked up the old dear, and off you went, and bought vegetables and fruit at the same time.
"Rather than just driving, we did babysitting, baking; there was nothing else on the coast, so we did everything.
"And then slowly older drivers started coming in and it evolved into what it is now."
Drivers take people to various medical appointments, mostly at Wellington Hospital, Kenepuru Hospital, and Hutt Hospital, in exchange for a financial koha.
"Anything medical.
"One lady we take to Wellington because she's had to have a lot of oral surgery."
Anna said service requests were on the rise after it had slowed down because of Covid-19.
"It's picking up again.
"There are still some people who are a bit wary about going with someone else but on the whole things are almost back to normal."
