Helping the people of Derby during the Coronavirus Pandemic

The country has now reached the amazing total of giving the first vaccination to 15 million people, therefore the first four most vulnerable groups have been vaccinated.

After over a month of offering our free service to the residents of Derby, we feel it is time to bring it to an end as demand for the service is now falling and a little bit of normality is hopefully just around the corner.

It’s been an absolute honour driving you to and from your appointments. The stories I’ve heard and the chats I’ve had have been both heartbreaking and heartwarming and it’s done wonders for my own mental health, just being out there doing my job again, opening doors for passengers and having those lovely random chat’s that I’ve missed so much during the pandemic.

I will, of course, be at the end of the telephone when you are ready to book in for your second jabs (contact us a week or two before) and I sincerely look forward to catching up with you all and if people are genuinely still struggling to get to the arena then give us a call, I can’t promise, but I’ll do my best to help out.

It’s been a great experience. Alongside actually getting out of the house and meeting people again we have appeared on the BBC Derby breakfast show, The Derby Evening Telegraph, I’ve been contacted by the mayor to say thanks and the council leader at Derbyshire county council has blogged and vlogged about us (links at the bottom of the page). The wonderful reviews we have been left on Facebook and Google have also made lovely reading and I thank every one of you who has shared a post, comments or liked on Facebook or emailed praise or helped advertise what we are doing.

I’d also like to thank the various companies in Derby who have made offers of donations towards running costs and to my fellow chauffeurs and drivers at East Midlands Minibus Co, Ripley Minibus Company and CK Cars for taking up the challenge and helping out myself or in their own area.

Finally, thanks for all the donations to Charity that YOU or my passengers have made. Our Justgiving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/a52cars is currently at over £700 and still rising – which is absolutely fantastic.

Anyway, I’ve lost count of the number of journeys we have done so have a little collage of some of the wonderful people I have driven over the last month that I managed to photograph.

Dave

www.A52Cars.co.uk
01332600993
07791176324

Link to Derby Evening Telegraph regarding A52 Executive Cars and their free Derby arena Chauffeur travel

Link to County Council Leader Barry Lewis’ blog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnGi2K80W3U&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=Derbyshirecc