I have a story I believe I must tell. On Friday, August 30 while travelling along the Pacific Highway heading for home on the Sunshine Coast, not far from the Lismore turnoff, I was involved in a bad accident. My brother was driving and was hurt badly and ended up in Lismore hospital. I was bruised and a bit sore down my right side. I also went to Lismore hospital.
My car was towed to a car yard at Alstonville. I hired a local taxi to take me from Lismore hospital to Alstonville to get all of my belongings out of my car, and I asked the driver if he would wait with me while I got all my belongings. He said he would and he helped me put all of my things in his car.
On my way back to the hospital a social worker who was helping me, rang to tell me it would cost me $1,000 to hire a car to get me home to Nambour Queensland. I mentioned this to the taxi driver, and he said without any hesitation, ‘I’ll take you’, and I said, ‘why would you do that?’ His reply: ‘you need help’. I then said, ‘how much is that going to cost me’, and he said ‘pay for the fuel’. Then he said I could leave all my stuff in his car overnight, and he would pick me up the next day and take me home. I was staying overnight in the ‘short stay unit’ at the hospital.
True to his word ‘Wazza’ the taxi driver picked me up from the hospital when I was discharged and drove me home to my door. It took us four hours, he helped me get my things inside my home, wished me well and then drove off back to his home which I think might be Ballina. (He did only charge me for the fuel).
So ‘Wazza’ the local taxi driver, was my ‘knight in shining armour’.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
