Soldier offered $151 for taxi

Stranded woman extremely grateful for young man’s huge act of kindness

AWarkworth woman who found herself stranded at North Shore Hospital in the early hours of the morning is beyond grateful to a young army soldier who offered to pay her $151 taxi fare home.

Lynda Maddock, in her 70s, was taken to hospital by St John ambulance at about 12am three weeks ago after having problems with her pacemaker, which was making her heart race and causing her breathing issues.

She had left her house in a hurry without her wallet or even her shoes.

But after being checked out by the doctors and getting the pacemaker working correctly again she pleaded with the doctors to let her return home.

Her 86-year-old husband was on his own at their Warkworth home and she also had a number of rescue animals she looked after.

But as she left the hospital she realised she had no transport.

She approached a taxi, but the driver refused to take her because she had no money on her to pay the $151 fare upfront even though she had told him she had the cash at home.

“The taxi driver just wouldn’t accept the fact that I could pay when I got home, but of course he didn’t want to drive all the way to Warkworth in case it didn’t go right. And I guess I didn’t blame him, but you know I didn’t have my purse or anything with me.”

Maddock returned to the waiting area “in a bit of a state” and started to cry.

“I was in tears, I was. I didn’t know what to do. A lot of my friends are also elderly and there was no way on this planet I was going to try and get them up at that time of the morning to give me a lift home.” She also did not own a mobile phone.

It was at this point one of two men dressed in camouflage army gear stepped forward and said ‘look I will cover the cost’.

The man, called Mark, was in his early 20s and dressed in army gear appeared to be supporting a colleague also in what looked like an army uniform.

He gave the taxi driver his credit card details as a back up until Maddock was able to give him the cash when she arrived home after the 40 minute drive.

The New Zealand Taxi Federation Inc executive director John Hart said taxi drivers were entitled to ask for the fare in advance. However, he said it came down to the driver’s discretion and some were more wary than others.