UNSUNG HEROES COUPLE WANT TO FIND OUT:


WHO IS OUR BABY DRAMA BATH TAXI HERO?


A visiting couple whose baby boy was almost born in a car in the middle of Bath are trying to track down a taxi driver who helped them get to hospital. Jeremy and Becky Holland were on holi- day in Bradford on Avon from their home in the Forest of Dean, together with their one-year-old daughter Molly. When Mrs Holland went into labour at 3am they faced a race against time to get to the Royal United Hos- pital. However


their way, and after frantically


around searching for it and trying to get help from Bath police station, they flagged down a taxi driver who escorted them there. They arrived at the hospital


in Combe


Park with minutes to spare before baby Ronnie was born.


my last hope was to flag down a taxi driver as her waters had now broken. “The taxi driver told me to follow him and we made it to the maternity unit with minutes to spare.” The couple, who had been staying at the Leigh Park Hotel at Bradford


Leigh,


Searching for their hero taxi driver are Jeremy and Becky Holland, pictured with Molly and their new-born baby


they lost driving


Now the family are hoping to track the driver down to thank him for his help. Mr Holland told the Bath Chronicle: “We had gone on holiday to Bradford on Avon to celebrate our sec- ond wedding an- niversary. “Becky was due to give birth to our sec- ond child on May 12,


however she went into heavy labour at 3am on Bank Holiday Mon- day morning. “We rushed from our hotel


to Bath but


could not find the hos- pital. “After asking several Bank Holiday rev- ellers for directions and trying the police station, which did not appear to be manned,


arrived at the materni- ty unit at 4.13am, were taken to the delivery suite at 4.14am and Ronnie was born at 4.15am. Mr Holland said: “If it hadn’t been for the taxi driver our son would have been born in the car in the middle of Bath.” The Good Samaritan taxi driver was foreign, possibly Polish. He was driving a dark Skoda Octavia at the time he helped the couple. If this was you, or you know who it was, e- mail Mr Holland on beeje@sky.com.


An investigation has been launched after a pensioner says she was left stranded in the city centre in the middle of the night by a taxi driver. Officials are also appealing for a cabbie described as “a knight in shining armour” to come forward after coming


to the


woman’s aid and get- ting her home. The woman, in her 70s, was left in “a very distressed state” out- side Cardiff Central Station and says she was left there by a Vale of Glamorgan taxi driv- er. She was eventually taken home by the taxi driver from the capital. Officers from the Vale of Glamorgan Coun- cil’s licensing depart- ment have appealed for the Cardiff driver to come forward to help them with their investi- gation. They say the Cardiff cabbie was driving a


CARDIFF CABBIE RESCUES PENSIONER


Peugeot E7 hackney carriage. The woman had been picked up at Cardiff Airport and dropped off at Cardiff Central Station in the early hours of April 18, although it


is


understood she had wanted to be taken to Cwmbran. The Cardiff taxi driver then came to the woman’s res- cue and took her to her home in Cwm- bran. A


Vale


spokesman walesonline:


council told “We


would very much like to talk to the Cardiff taxi driver who came to the lady’s assis- tance. The information he has will be of cru- cial importance to our investigation.” The


spokeswoman


said she was urging the Cardiff driver to contact the council’s licensing manager on 01446 709782 or email l i c e n s i n g@v a l e ofglamorgan.gov.uk


KENDAL CABBIE HONOURED FOR HELPING ASSAULT VICTIM


A caring cabbie was honoured for an act of bravery which she said was just ‘some- thing she had to do’. Sonia Greenbank, who works for Lady Cabs in Kendal, was given an award at South Lakeland Mag- istrates’ Court


for


helping a man who had been assaulted in the town. The 52-year-old, of Sedbergh, was on her way home from work at around 2.30am when she saw the man lying in a pool of blood on Sedbergh Road, Kendal. “I saw a group of youths


coming


towards the middle of the road and further


PAGE 46


up I saw a person lying there,” she told the Westmorland Gazette. “At


first I


thought he was drunk and his friends had just left him there.” The taxi driver’s first thought was just to get him out of the cold and sleety March weather, but the group of men she had seen had other ideas. “As I walked closer to him one of the men started


shouting,


screaming and swear- ing at me. He was trying to get me not to help the lad.” But this did not scare her and when she moved closer to the man she realised it was a much more seri-


ous situation than she had initially thought. “I


thought he had


thrown up but then I shone my phone over him and discovered there was blood, so I rang the police and stayed with him until they got there,” she said. Presenting Mrs Green- bank


with her


certificate of commen- dation, Her Honour Judge Barbara For- rester, one of


the


senior Judges at Carlisle Crown Court, said: “This is a special occasion to hand out an award given by Carlisle Crown Court for an act of bravery. “Had Mrs Greenbank not helped, the man’s


Sonia Greenbank is presented with her certificate


injuries could have been worse (by not being treated quickly) or he could have suf- fered from the cold.” Despite the threats Ms Greenbank may have received, she said that she did not regret her actions for a moment. “The group could have come back near me but in that moment I was more fixed on what the hurt man was doing,” she said. “I really did not think of the others - you don’t think, you just act in those situations. “I do not know much about the young man but his mum contact- ed me to say thank you for what I did.”


PHTM JULY 2013


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80