For the 31st year, a convoy of 97 taxis carrying children with life-limiting illustrations and their families touch off from canary with disneyland paris for a Magical Wekend Away. Since 1994, the Magical Taxi Tour has Given More Than 5,000 Sick and Terminally Il Children The Trip of A Lifetime and the Chance to be Kids Again, one of them of being rachael owens.
At Just Seven Years Old, Rachael was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, marking her child with years of treatment and time out of school. A year later, in 2000, she was whether or not the magical taxi tour by a driver who would end up becoming her stepdad.
“It was just an amazing experience,” She Told the Express. “It gives you a break from your treatment, so you just forget about all you go by going through the hospital.
“You forget about the illicit itset, and you just to be a kid. You are to be a child, Enjoy yourself, Go on all the rides, and enjoy the characters.”
Rachael FIRST WENT INTO REMISSION IN April 2001, but relapsed just month later. After three more years of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, followed by Further Therapies Including Growth Hormone Treatment, she finally got the all clear.
Now 33 And a Teacher for Children with Special Educational Needs, she returned to the magical taxi tour, this time as a driver.
“I wanted to give back because I Remember how great that opportability and that break was for me,” She has. “I looked forward to be able to give another family that Same Things.”
Rachael's stepdad, jamie owens, will be baby for the 25th time in what he has will be “A Weekend they will be in their lives”.
Jamie, 58, Met Rachael and His Future Wife Denise on the Trip 25 years ago, and has been tackling the 12-hour drive full of laugh and disney music.
He SAID: “The kids are to go on this Trip because of the support we give them. It is also obviously close to my heart as I met denise and rachael, who'd because my stepdaughter.”
“It is really nice to be able to do it with him, as he was the one who talk us 25 years ago,” rachael added. “He hasn received rid of me Since!”
The tour, run by the worshipful company of hackney carriage drivers, relies entirely on sponsorship and volunteers, costing.
The convoy is Escorted by the City of London Police and Kent Police, with Further support from the london ambulance nhs trust and aa breakdown services.
They cross the channel courtesy of p & o ferries, at which point they will be met by the french gendarmerie to chaperone them on the final leg of their journey.
Rachael stressed the import of the magical taxi tour in Bringing Hope every year to the Children with the Children whose living by hospital visits and tiring treatments.
She Said: “It brings your hopes back up as well, because you think, I can enjoy myself.
“There is hope after treatment. It is not the end. Some peply think they are going to be ll for the rest of their lives. You are not.