Call Sign April 2008 - Page 30 - DARREN’S HALF MARATHON RUN FOR HOSPICE - GLASGOW TAXIS VISIT DAC

Dial-a-Cab driver, Darren Dennis (W65), recently ran in the 27th Brentwood half-marathon to help raise funds for St Francis Hospice in Havering-atte-Bower, Essex. He also ran in memory of former DaC driver and Darren’s good friend, Colin Starr. He completed the run in just under I hour 58 minutes alongside his friends Dave and Robbie (and their Hummer!!!) - which helped to take some of the strain out of the 13.1mile course. Darren told us: *"I’d like to thank Call Sign* and all my other sponsors, especially the Grosvenor Gardens Cab Shelter for their help in raising around Ł500 for St Francis Hospice in Collier Row."** St Francis’ Hospice does much good work to help those with terminal illnesses, their aim being to alleviate suffering regardless of whether physical, emotional, social	DARREN’S HALF MARATHON RUN FOR HOSPICE
	Darren (arm in the air) reaches the halfway mark
	or spiritual so that they can give patients the best quality of life possible for however long that life may be. They care for more than 1,400 patients and their families each year at a cost of around Ł5million, which ensures that loved ones get the care they need 24/7.	If you would like to make a donation, you can phone on 01708 723593 and their fundraising staff will help you to make an instant donation or you can send a cheque to: Saint Francis Hospice, Freepost, The Hall, Havering-atte-Bower, Romford, RM4 1BR.

GLASGOW TAXIS VISIT DAC

Brian Rice with party from Glasgow Taxis

Led by Chairman, Bill McIntosh and Secretary Robert Dunobie, a five-man party from north of the border came down to London to get a personal tour of Dial-a-Cab from Chairman Brian Rice.
   The trip hadn’t started off in the best way when their flight from Glasgow had to be diverted to Southend due to fog at London City Airport. They grabbed a lucky cabdriver and made the trip at a cost of Ł110 – including Ł8 the shrewd driver said he would have to pay for congestion charging. Of course DaC is outside the zone!
   Originally, Glasgow’s radio cabs were known as the Taxi Owners Association and by the 1990s there were several small radio taxi companies, who in 1997 created Glasgow Taxis by merging and forming a fleet that numbers close to 1000. It now operates as a driver’s cooperative – very similar to DaC.
   Now looking to update their Raywood system, they made enquiries about who or what would be their best bet to have a look at and even in and around Glasgow, the name of Brian Rice and Dial-a-Cab came up several times! So they hopped onto a flight and headed south!
   After a visit lasting several hours, Bill McIntosh told Call Sign:
   "We were hugely impressed with the sheer professionalism of Dial-a-Cab, their headquarters and they way their dispatch system is set up to meet customer needs. They have come a long way since my last visit and it is great to see a fellow co-operative flourish in the face of competition from circuits in the private sector."

NOT THE LAST OF THE TAXICARDS!
If the name of Norman Clegg means nothing to you, then you must have been in a tiny minority of those who weren’t captured by the charm of the long-running hit BBC comedy series, The Last of the Summer Wine. Peter Sallis played Norman Clegg and starring alongside Bill Owen as Compo, Michael Bates as Cyril Blamire (later replaced by Brian Wilde as Foggy Dewhurst) and Kathy Staff as the incomparable Nora Batty! Now almost retired from acting – although he is about to begin a UK tour called An Audience with Peter Sallis – Peter takes life somewhat easier than Summer Wine schedules allowed and is a	Cleggy (left), Compo and Cyril from 1973 frequent user of the Westminster TaxiCard (see cover pic). Summer Wine first hit the TV screens in January 1973, but that one-off episode tickled enough tastebuds to become a series by the following November and led to another 27! He also achieved huge fame in 1989 when voicing Wallace, of Wallace and Gromit fame. That included several movies as well.	Did he get bored playing Norman Clegg for so long? "Never," he says calmly, just as Norman Clegg would have. "How can you get bored with such wonderful characters, let alone it being set in such a wonderful place as Holmfirth!" The programme’s setting in Yorkshire’s Holme Valley is now a tourist hotspot with the show’s lovers constantly visiting it. But Peter is now content in his Bayswater apartment. "My eyes aren’t as good as they once were," he explained to Call Sign, "but I know that whenever I phone up Dial-a-Cab to use my TaxiCard, I won’t be let down. I think that both Dial-a-Cab and the TaxiCard are wonderful."

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