Cancer survivor passes his driving test at 79
It didn’t interest me at all so I called it a draw. Keith Limbert on his first attempt to get a driving licence over 50 years ago.
CANCER SURVIVOR Keith Limbert has passed his driving test – at the age of 79.
Mr Limbert, of Garforth, started taking lessons after his wife Anne, also 79, suffered a debilitating stroke in October 2015 and was in hospital for six weeks.
Mrs Limbert, who has difficulty walking and uses a wheelchair, had passed her driving test in 1972 but was left unable to drive after the stroke and the couple had to rely on lifts. Mr Limbert, who survived colon cancer at 60, became her full-time carer and numerous further hospital visits continued after she was diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time 18 months ago.
He said he spent a “fortune I don’t have” on 40 driving lessons and finally passed his driving test last month at the third attempt.
Mr Limbert said: “I take Anne out every day to have a coffee and a scone, either to a garden centre or somewhere else. We would go stir-crazy if we were stuck in the house all week.” The couple, who have three children and three grandchildren and have been married for 58 years, are now enjoying a “new lease of life” according to their eldest daughter Shelly Bennett, 54. Mrs Bennett, of Normanton, said: “My mum used to chauffeur him around but after she suffered a stroke she stopped driving. “I told him he needed to take his test – it was either that or catch the bus with a wheelchair!” Mr Limbert, who worked at the former Royal Ordnance Barnbow tank factory in Crossgates, said he had taken some driving lessons when he was 25 but soon gave up. He explained: ”It didn’t interest me at all so I called it a draw.”