Taxi!

I had been invited to be interviewed on Sky News by Kay Burley about living with Parkinson’s as part of a bigger interview with Laura Culpan, a director of Artwise. The interview is predominantly about the Cure³ art exhibition devised and created by Artwise to raise awareness and funds to support Cure Parkinson’s vital research. My role will be to talk about Parkinson’s, the lived experience.

With a Sky News taxi booked to pick me up at 8.30am for my interview, I needed to be in London the day before. Naturally, needing to prepare for my interview, I spent a couple of hours shopping! London, like much of the rest of the UK was wet and windy. There was no pleasure in lugging my overnight bag around Regent Street. To make my journey as easy and painless as possible, I hailed the first cab I saw to take me to my hotel. 

Getting into the cab, I shared a brief moan about the weather with the driver. Taxi etiquette in the UK dictates this compulsory exchange of raised eyebrows, sighs and moans about the weather, the traffic or the roadworks before the contractual driving and dropping off begins. 

The driver asked what brought me to London, so I told him about my Sky News interview and from there we chatted for the entire twenty minutes of the cab ride. 

I knew nothing about the taxi driver nor he anything about me when I got in the cab. By the end of the journey, I knew that his name was Raymond, he had three children and two grandchildren and I’d heard snippets about their lives. By the time we drew up outside my hotel, Raymond knew my name and would look out for my interview on Sky News. His questions could only have been good preparation for the interview the next day as he learned a little about the Cure3 art exhibition and Cure Parkinson’s, the charity. He had a greater understanding of Parkinson’s than he did twenty minutes earlier and he knew quite a lot about my impending cycle trip across America!

It is the human interactions that make life interesting. This is never usually more evident than during each of our cycling challenges when time after time, I am warmed by people’s kindness and generousity. Today was another one of these experiences. 

I had thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and then when helping me out of the taxi, Raymond refused any payment for the taxi fare, asking me to donate the money to Cure Parkinson’s instead. I was humbled by his genuine interest in Parkinson’s and his generousity in donating the cab fare. 

I would expect to have lots of these experiences during our cycle across America but I hadn’t expected them to start so far in advance. I’m grateful to Raymond for reinforcing yet again, how wonderful, compassionate and generous people can be. 

The weather was no different when I exited the taxi to when I got in it but everything somehow seemed a little warmer and lighter. Thank you Raymond for being the perfect antidote to a wet January day!

Click on the image above for more information about the 2025 Cure³ exhibition.

Taxi Image Source: ClipArt Library