A kindhearted taxi driver rushed distraught grandparents to hospital when their three-year-old granddaughter suffered a major seizure – and refused to accept any money for the journey.
Now the grandparents, Joan and Dave Drew, want to send their heartfelt thanks to the Good Samaritan cabbie, but say the only way they have of identifying him is that he has a picture of what they describe as a “very pretty lady” on his sunvisor.
Their granddaughter, Lilia Grace Drew was undergoing treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton at about 5pm on Wednesday June 17, when she had a seizure and had to be transferred in an ambulance to St Thomas’ Hospital, London.
Joan and Dave Drew, who live in Dorset, but who were in London at the time of the crisis needed to get from Epsom station to the Royal Marsden Hospital in a hurry to collect their other granddaughter Mrs Drew wrote to the Epsom Guardian: “The taxi driver got us to hospital without delay, but most poignantly, and how he touched our hearts with his compassion, was that he refused his fare.
“My husband said he must accept payment, especially in this economic climate, but he wanted us to donate the money to the charity of our choice.”
The money has been given to a cancer charity.
Little Lilia Grace had rhabdomyosarcoma – a fast-growing and highly-malignant form of cancer which frequently leaves lumps on the body or head – diagnosed in November 2008. Tragically most cases are diagnosed in children under five.
Mrs Drew wrote: “She is so precious and has suffered so much in her short life, but with the excellent team at the Marsden using different chemo, we have to pray for a miracle.”
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