Black cab drivers treat sick kids to guided tour of London’s Christmas lights

Black cab drivers have treated sick children to a free tour of London’s Christmas lights to help cheer them up over the festive season.

Cars decked out in Christmas lights and tinsel arrived at Great Ormond Street hospital to give eight children and their families a personalised tour of the capital’s festive celebrations.

Inside the cars were Christmas crackers, Santa hats and chocolate gifts for the children, while festive favourites played on the radio to help set the mood.

Among them was three-year-old Alfie, from south-east London, who has been an inpatient since June and is likely to stay at the hospital until the end of January.

Alfie is being treated for Xiap deficiency, a rare immunodeficiency caused by a genetic mutation in the Xiap gene which reduces its ability to regulate the body’s immune response.

The youngster has been poorly since he was a baby, but has never been in hospital during the Christmas period although he hopes to be able to go home for a few hours on Christmas Day.

His stay in hospital has been extended after he suffered complications from abone marrow transplant in July, which has also limited the time he can spend with his brothers Teddie, 12, and Bobby, nine.

But despite the setbacks, the three boys and their parents Kathleen and Chris, both 37, were all able to enjoy the Christmas lights tour as a family.

Kathleen said the family was particularly impressed by Fortnum and Mason’s advent calendar festive decor, but the real highlight was ‘just doing a Christmas activity together because we haven’t really been able to do anything’.

‘Alfie can’t really be around crowded places so we’ve had no Santa visit, no ice skating, normal things that we would do.

‘This is our only Christmas thing that we’ve all done together. That’s really, really nice. It’s something that they will remember.’

Kathleen said their driver Lee McQueen, who organised the tour, treated the family ‘like royalty,’ and was ‘such a nice man’ who was ‘really good with the kids’.

‘He decorated all the taxi and put Santa hats on all the seats, put stickers on the windows,’ she said. ‘There was Christmas music, chocolates for the kids, sweets, drinks.

‘He really decorated it lovely, it was so nice.’

Kathleen, who has been with Alfie throughout his hospital stay, added: ‘It makes a big difference because otherwise every day is like Groundhog Day in here sometimes.

‘You get up and do the same thing so it is something to actually look forward to.’

Mr McQueen organised the tour through the hospital’s play team, which is funded by the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, after approaching the hospital around a year ago.

The team makes hospital stays more fun for children who are treated to festive activities like Santa visits, parties, presents and carol singing.

Mr McQueen said he remembers putting money in the hospital charity collection boxes as a child, continues to donate and also follows the black cab tradition of giving free lifts to children going to the London hospital for care: ’Every time I’m at work in my cab and someone gets in with a child asking to go to Gosh I never charge.’

The 42-year-old father of two from Brentwood, Essex, has been a black cab driver for nine years and recently qualified to be a tour guide, offering history tours of the city, through the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers.

He said other cabbies who had completed the tour guide were more than happy to offer festive trips to families in need: ‘I asked them “would you be able to help me?” and they didn’t even think about it, they just said yes straight away.’

Mr McQueen said he had felt quite emotional driving to the hospital after his wife and children helped him to decorate the cab, adding that Alfie and his family ‘loved it straight away’.

‘They were eating the sweets and chocolates, I had all the music on and the lights were set up, they had their Christmas jumpers on as well.

‘They just had smiles on their faces.’

He added: ‘For me to be able to help them it’s amazing.’

Locations visited on the two-hour tour included Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street.

‘It was a privilege to be able to help them. It was an honour for everybody, everyone was so grateful,’ the cabbie added.

‘I’ve been thinking about this trip for so long and I want to do it every year and make it bigger and better every single year so I’m hoping with the help of the contacts I’ve got now, we’ll be able to make this an annual trip and we can take everybody out if we can.’

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