In September 2019, Kitty was invited to join the Magical Taxi Tour to Disneyland Paris as a Retinoblastoma (Rb) patient.
The trip was kept as a surprise to Kitty until the morning of the trip. Kitty and her Mum went to the Royal London Hospital at 6:00 am to meet up with the nurses and other families nominated by this hospital, where we were met by our taxis, given our identification lanyards and then driven to the East Wintergarden in Canary Wharf. Everyone attending the trip and the event organisers and sponsors enjoyed breakfast together. Kitty chose to have a bacon roll that morning – Bacon quickly became a running theme throughout the trip. Before we left, we collected the packed lunches for the trip, and Kitty was given a Magical Taxi Tour branded water bottle, baseball cap, teddy bear and rubber bracelet. We also got to meet the sponsor of our Taxi.
The drive was quite long; however, our driver Luigi was amazing. The first leg of the journey was from Canary Wharf to Dover, where we boarded the ferry to Calais. The second leg was from Calais to Assevilliers, where the taxis refuelled, and the kids could stretch their legs. The stop was eventful as the drivers stop here every year, so the management of the rest stop made it eventful for the kids by providing face painting and entertainment. Kitty opted to have her face painted as Minnie Mouse, and she received a goodie bag with a picture frame, a cup, and some treats.
From here, we made the final leg to Disneyland. We arrived at the hotel at 7:45 pm, and by this point, Kitty was oblivious to what was happening around her. She walked straight past Goofy. Kitty was quite put out when the hotel manager gently tugged her ponytail after she ignored his greetings upon arrival. She soon perked up when she discovered our hotel was Toy Story themed. We settled in quickly and went to dinner – BBQ-style food is always a winner!
We went to breakfast early on Saturday morning, and we met our driver there – Kitty ate bacon consistently for the whole trip. Luigi was amazing with Kitty the whole time we were with him. We then took the shuttle to the park. Kitty’s eyes lit up like Christmas as we walked through the gates and saw the huge castle. After some obligatory photos, the first place kitty wanted to visit was the Star Wars ride at Space Mountain. Now Kitty is a child who doesn’t like the dark or going through tunnels, and most importantly, she gets travel sick… so I spent time checking in with her to make sure she really wanted to go on this ride. Well, not only did she want to go on it, she wanted to sit at the FRONT!!! So I took a deep breath and took her on the ride. She LOVED it! The only downside was that I forgot to remove her glasses before we boarded, so she spent the whole ride trying to hold them on her face 😱🤣. We spent the rest of the day going around on all the rides, and Kitty was disappointed she couldn’t do the princess meet and greet as this had to be booked in advance. Partway around, we met up with another Rb family from our hospital and went around the park together. She had a fantastic day overall.
The organisers hosted an evening dinner and kids’ party in a neighbouring hotel. Kitty was initially reluctant to join the other kids dancing until I told her it was being live-streamed on the Magical Taxi Tour’s Facebook page. During this event, Kitty got to meet Mickey Mouse and Goofy. Kitty was pretty tired by the end of the evening, so we left a little early so she could sleep.
Finally, it was Sunday – Hometime. We had breakfast before everyone gathered in the hotel car park, where the children could explore our journey’s support vehicles. Kitty wasted no time, going up and down the convoy, testing the police motorcycles and cars, exploring the AA vehicle and generally living her best life.
The Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers annually puts on the Magical Taxi Tour for children with life-threatening illnesses. The year that Kitty went, there was a convoy of approximately 100 Taxis, plus support vehicles, including an AA breakdown truck and a police escort comprising officers from the City of London Police and the French Gendarmes.