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Joy

London's black cab drivers keep a tradition alive for families of chronically sick kids

From free rides to Disneyland trips, these cabbies go the extra mile for families at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Mic from Reading - Berkshire, United Kingdom

A representative image of one of London's famous black cabs

Great Ormond Street Hospital is more than just a hospital—it’s a beacon of hope for families from all over the UK and beyond who come seeking expert care for their critically ill children. According to a BBC report, London's black cab drivers have consistently demonstrated an extraordinary dedication to these families. One driver shared, “It’s not much, but if it helps them, that’s what matters.” The drivers are well aware that, to these parents, every gesture counts, especially when it lifts even a little of the weight they carry.


The Magical Taxi Tour: a journey of joy

Beyond the free rides to GOSH, London's black cab community also hosts the annual "Magical Taxi Tour"—a three-day event that takes children with severe illnesses to Disneyland Paris. Organized in partnership with GOSH and several sponsors, the tour began in 1994 and has since become a cherished tradition, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. For over 200 children, this journey isn’t just a holiday; it’s a chance to escape hospital routines and immerse themselves in the joy of Disneyland, surrounded by family and caring drivers who volunteer to make the trip possible.

@clegggifford In partnership with the ‘Magical Taxi Tour’ we’re proud to do our small bit, providing insurance for this journey from Great Ormond Street to Disneyland Paris. 🚖 #GOSH #MagicalTaxiTour #LondonToParis #Charity #fundraising ♬ original sound - CleggGifford

In an article by The Telegraph, cab drivers expressed how the tour enriches their own lives as much as it does the children’s. They decorate their cabs with balloons and flags, honk and wave, and set off in a convoy filled with excitement. Each year, crowds gather to watch them depart, wishing them well as they make the journey. This annual event is an entire community effort, funded by donations and coordinated by volunteers committed to bringing happiness to the lives of these children.

Social media celebrates a city’s kindness

Social media has amplified awareness of these remarkable acts of kindness. A recent TikTok video capturing this year’s Magical Taxi Tour parade gained thousands of reactions, with viewers from around the world showing admiration. One Reddit user, Corporation_tshirt, remarked on the drivers’ dedication: “I also love the tradition London cabbies have of never charging families for trips to this one children’s hospital.” Another commenter, PepperPhoenix, shared the significance of the hospital’s work, adding, "Great Ormond Street. A hospital for the most critically ill children. They are on the bleeding edge of medical innovation, and desperately ill children from all over the world come there.”

"I also love the tradition London cabbies have of never charging families for trips to this one children’s hospital."

Corporation_tshirt

Another witness to the event, TheMilkfather, described seeing the Magical Taxi Tour return from France: “We saw them on the ferry from Calais to Dover. Just hundreds of taxis, and we Googled it at the time. It was so heartwarming to witness.”

"We saw them on the ferry from Calais to Dover. Just hundreds of taxis... It was so heartwarming to witness."

TheMilkfather

A tradition rooted in compassion and community

As the Magical Taxi Tour celebrated its 30th year, it’s clear this is a tradition built on more than just goodwill; it’s an expression of London’s communal spirit and the cabbies’ dedication to supporting children and families in need. Witnessing the convoy of cabs decorated with balloons, all heading to Disneyland, has become a symbol of the kindness that thrives in the city.

The Magical Taxi Tour is funded entirely through donations and volunteer support, allowing drivers to participate without charge to the families. For the cab drivers, it’s a meaningful way to connect with GOSH’s mission, and they look forward to the event each year, proud to support these children in a memorable way. Those inspired by the tour and the free rides to GOSH can also contribute to the cause, either by donating to Great Ormond Street Hospital or supporting initiatives like the Magical Taxi Tour.

As the next generation of London’s black cab drivers carry on this cherished tradition, they remind us that in a fast-paced world, kindness and compassion still have a powerful place. The drivers’ dedication to making a difference, whether through a simple ride or a trip of a lifetime to Disneyland, brings comfort, strength, and joy to those who need it most.

A dentist improves someone's smile.

A touching story out of New Zealand shows a community's power to fight back against bullying and uplift the spirits of a young boy who badly needed medical attention.

It all began in 2011 when 12-year-old Evan Hill of Christchurch appeared on “Campbell Live,” a local current affairs show. Hill had severely buck teeth, and it made him the target of relentless bullying. Because of his appearance, the kids at his school called him “Rabbit kid.”

"They make me look funny and silly," Evan said about his teeth. "(The kids at school) call me a bunny rabbit and I'm not."

To add to the problem, Hill’s family was going through some very hard times after a devastating earthquake that struck New Zealand earlier that year. One hundred eighty-five people died in the quake and thousands of homes were destroyed.


"Since the earthquakes, I've had a death in the family, my mum passed away and my dad's house was virtually in the red zone. He found it hard to cope with that and had a stroke, and now he's in a rest home,” Evan’s father, Stephen Hill, revealed on the show.

The family didn’t have the $12,000 needed to pay for Evan’s dental work or a car to drive him to any appointments. Dental care is free in New Zealand to people under 18. However, Evan’s case was too severe to qualify.

If Evan didn’t get his teeth fixed, the bullies wouldn’t be his only problem. According to Medical News Today, buck teeth can lead to difficulty with chewing or eating, problems speaking, teeth grinding, mouth breathing, jaw problems, tooth decay and headaches due to pressures in the jaw joint.

The family’s neighbor, Phil Cooper, appealed to the people watching the show to help the family. "A lot of us judge others by their covers and who they look like on the outside, but actually he's a really nice kid,” Cooper said.

Boy bullied for buck teeth gets new smile after donations pour in | Newshub

After Evan’s story aired, “Campbell Live” was inundated with donations from its viewers and thousands of contributions added up to over $100,000 for the family. The money was used for Evan’s dental work and for the family to get a car. The family placed the rest of the money in a trust to pay for other children with similar dental problems.

Five years after appearing on television and sharing his story, orthodontist Ronald Sluiter took Evan’s braces off, revealing a beautiful smile. Over the course of the procedure, Evan’s teeth had to be moved 15 millimeters (⅔ of an inch) to be in a healthy and aesthetically appealing position.

“It’s about time,” Evan’s mother, Barbara Erickson, told Newshub. “I don’t know where we would have been today without the generosity we had. We had been looking to mortgage the house to pay for them.”

When asked how he looked after having his braces removed, Evan said: “Good.” Now, Even is looking forward to a career as a train driver.

Joy

Fred Meyer store got $50,000 for winning Powerball ticket and gave it all to a local food bank

The money will provide approximately 66,000 meals to the community.

A Fred Meyer store in Washington State passed its lottery bonus on to the Auburn Food Bank.

When someone wins a Powerball lottery jackpot, they aren't the only ones who get a cash prize. The store that sells the winning ticket also receives a cash bonus for selling the winning ticket. The amount of the reward varies depending on the state and the total amount of the lottery, but it can end up being a significant chunk of change.

On February 6, a Fred Meyer store in Auburn, Washington, sold the winning ticket for the $754.6 million Powerball jackpot—the fifth largest Powerball amount ever seen. As a bonus for selling the ticket, the Fred Meyer store received a check for $50,000.

But instead of pocketing the cash, the Kroger-owned store turned around and gave it to the Auburn Food Bank.



The donation was made in honor of the company's Zero Hunger | Zero Waste program, which includes a goal to donate 3 billion meals to local communities by 2025. According to the City of Auburn, that $50,000 will provide approximately 66,000 meals in the area.

Naturally, the food bank was grateful to the Fred Meyer store for the unexpected gift.

“Hunger and food insecurity are critical issues across the state and partnerships like this one with Fred Meyer and QFC aim to shrink the numbers of people facing food insecurity,” Debbie Christian, executive director of the Auburn Food Bank, told KING5 News.

Despite passing along the entirety of the lottery reward, employees of the Fred Meyer store will still benefit from the sale of the winning ticket, thanks to their generous company headquarters.

“It’s always good to give back and today everyone wins,” Fred Meyer President Todd Kammeyer said in a statement. “In addition to this donation, Fred Meyer is giving $10,000 to the store for our associates to celebrate."

As for the winner of the $754.6 million jackpot? Well, she has a fun story, too.

Becky Bell is a supply chain analyst for The Boeing Company, which just delivered its last 747 jumbo jet at the end of January. Bell has worked for the aircraft giant for 36 years and was planning to retire in June. When she saw that the Powerball estimate was $747 million while on a trip to the store with her daughter on February 5, she took it as a sign.

“That’s when it hit me…I had to buy one more ticket,” said Bell, according to a Washington Lottery press release.

That second ticket she bought was the sole winner of the jackpot, which ended up being over $7 million more than the estimated $747 million. But at first, she didn't know. When she scanned her ticket and it said it was a winner, all she knew was that she had won at least $600, "which was pretty exciting," she said. She'd never won more than $20 in her life.

Then she checked the numbers and realized she had all of them—the whole jackpot. She had to call her daughters, sisters and mom to double, triple and quadruple-check that she had the right numbers.

“The funny thing was my mom misheard me when I told her how much I won,” said Bell, who said she would help take care of her family members. “She said ‘Seven million…that’s great, honey. Everyone can have a million.’ Then I had to say, ‘No, mom, seven HUNDRED million dollars. Pretty soon, everyone was crying.”

After choosing to receive her winnings in one lump sum instead of gradual payments over 29 years, Bell will take home almost $309.5 million. She has moved her retirement date up to the end of March, staying on long enough to finish training her replacement at Boeing.

So much winning all around.

Joy

17 people reveal the most 'wholesome secret' they've never told anyone before

"Instead of a dark one, what wholesome secret are you hiding?”

via Pexels

Some people's secrets are dark, others are wholesome.

There’s an old adage you’ll often hear in recovery groups:

“We’re only as sick as our secrets.”

The phrase means that a secret kept in the dark grows and becomes more harmful, but when it is exposed in the light of day, its power is lost.

However, that saying only refers to the dark secrets we keep. What about the nice things we do for others without ever telling anyone? When we hold onto the positive things we’ve done for others does it make us happier because we did something without ever asking for credit?

Does doing good things in secret lead to a positive cycle of doing more and more good?


A Reddit user named @Toadsaged posed a question to the AskReddit subforum that was a bit of a departure from the usual conversation. People frequently ask people to reveal their darkest secrets on Reddit. But for a change of pace, @Toadsaged asked people to share the good things they’ve done without telling anyone.

“Instead of a dark one, what wholesome secret are you hiding?” @Toadsaged asked.

A lot of the responses were people sharing how they have anonymously helped friends, family members and neighbors who have fallen on hard times but may be too proud to ask for help. The responses are great because they show creative ways that people can help one another without making it known.

It’s also a reminder that there are a lot of people out there doing nice things that we never hear about.

Here are 17 of the best wholesome secrets that people have been hiding.

1.

"My stepmother doesn't know she's going to spend the rest of her life living with my family because I feel a sense of duty to her. My dad wasn't the best to her, and he drank himself to death immediately after a quadruple bypass. She never got to have kids because he had a vasectomy after I was born, and the reversal didn't work. The life insurance policy I guilted my dad into getting was only 50k, and it's gone. My brother completely rejected her as a mother. She's so happy when she's with my kids. And a disappointing life has taken its toll on her. I want her final years to be easy and happy, to feel like she has a family that is not ruled by alcohol." — @TheQuietType84

2.

"Every time my grandmother gave me money or paid me for doing her a favor, I always slipped the money back into her purse or hid it in her house when she wasn't paying attention. Sometimes when I had no choice but to leave with it, I'd trade it for smaller bills and hide it the next time I visited. She never knew. There were a lot of times we'd be talking over the phone or something and she'd get excited because she found money. It's nothing special, but it's something that makes me happy. And I know she's happy giving money when she can so it's a win-win! Y'all better not tell her either!" — @clumsyally423

3.

"I worked at a KFC for maybe 3 weeks back in 2005. I came out the back door one night after closing the place down to find several homeless guys huddled around the dumpster, digging through it to find the excess food we’d thrown out. That was some haunting shit… so for the rest of the short time I worked there, our excess food didn’t go in the dumpster. I just left it on the back step. Fucking Colonel Sanders could afford to take the hit so those poor bastards could eat a halfway decent meal without having to dig through garbage for it." — @risenphoenixkai

4.

"Someone close to me is too proud to accept my help so they go to a food pantry. So, I donate their favorite foods to the pantry so it stays stocked with the foods they prefer." — @Glum_Lab_3778

5.

"I buy hundreds of pounds of birdseed every year and keep all the bird feeders in the windows of the resident's rooms of our nursing home full. They all love watching the birds and think the facility provides it." — @WakingOwl1

6.

"Where I live, there is a place called the 'Blessing Box' It's a cabinet where people can drop off canned and dry goods to help feed other families. My wife and I hit some hard times financially and had to rely on the Blessing Box to feed ourselves. Made a promise to myself that if I ever came into some extra cash, I would return the blessing.

Later on, I scored a well-paying temp job and was able to catch up on a lot of bills right before Thanksgiving. Remembering the promise I made, I used my next paycheck to fill the Blessing Box to the brim with a variety of canned goods. Everything a family would need for the holiday. A few days later, the Blessing Box was featured on the local news and how an unknown donor provided enough food to feed over a dozen low-income families for the holiday. Wife and I have never told a soul that it was us." — @JQuest7575

7.

"Anytime either of my kids has a school field trip, I anonymously pay for a student that wouldn’t otherwise go due to financial reasons. I was always that kid, sitting in a strange class because my class was off doing something else. It sucked." — @SnoSlider

8.

"I 'lose' cash everywhere. Friends’ places, gently tucked into the booth at restaurants, just on the floor in a public place. I lightly believe in karma, and while it started ironically, I now full-heartedly believe that when I 'lose' a few bucks here and there, then that money goes to the person who needs/deserves it. It’s one of the few things I have thought of that has little to no chance of being caught for it. I also do the same with myself. I intentionally 'forget' cash in my jacket pockets, then it’s a nice surprise later in life." — @reynosomarkus

9.

"I got a girl in my class who was my friend a Valentine's card who never got any attention from guys. I never liked her in that way but wanted her to be happy. No joke she seemed to develop more confidence from that day and got a boyfriend a year later then got married a bit after that and is really happy.

I even heard her talking about it one day in a group setting and how happy it made her, and I had to stay really quiet because I wanted it to stay special for her." — @GroundbreakingMud537

10.

"I finished cancer treatments last spring and my work was extremely generous financially throughout the process. A sporting event was used as a fundraiser and I received $1200. Since I was almost done with treatment and bills were caught up, I gave $1000 to a student in my daughter's class who is fighting cancer too. I left it anonymously for her to pick up at school. Her mom posted a thank you on her FB page, but no one knows it was me." — @Puzzled-Mushroom8050

11.

"I often buy my friends tickets to concerts or movies and just say that I happened upon a free ticket and ask if they want to come. I never tell them I bought it just because I want them there and they couldn't afford to go!" — @Fedjito

12.

"I had recently moved into my own apartment in Manhattan after graduating and getting a very nice job on Wall St. Every Friday everyone would go dashing to the bars for Happy Hour but I'd respectfully always decline. I was a volunteer at a hospice home where I'd read, feed or just spend time with the residents there. I had been volunteering there for about 2 years and sadly saw more than a few of the folks I was close to pass away. I still think of the people there though they all must have left our world already since this was a long time ago. I'm certain we'll all meet again one day." — @BoujeeMomme

13.

"I bake food, like banana bread, cookies or brownies for the ups/ mail carriers during the holiday seasons since they’re the real Santas. I leave them in a plastic bags in the mamailboxith a little for the mail carrier/ thank you note, For the UPS people I’ll put it in a basket on our front porch with a similar note." — @DMaddsRads

14.

"I bought a poor kid in my church a left-hander's baseball glove and left it on the pew where his family sits with no note. He has since told me that it is awesome to have since he only had a hand-me-down riright-handernd he throws left. He's being raised by his grandmother who doesn't have a lot of cash and is stubborn about it—if I had left my name, she would have been angry about it and insisted on paying me back."— @KaleidoscopeWeird310


15.

"Whenever I get a raise, bonus, or if I feel like it, I leave an exorbitant tip and leave immediately after so I’m not caught. Oftentimes it’s over 400% of the bill." — @aimstothrive

16.

"I send my kid’s birthday/holiday cards from their grandparents every year. They aren’t involved in their lives but I do it in case one day they may want to be. My kids won’t have any ill feelings towards them." — @morganripley669

17.

"Every Christmas I leave a card with money in it and some gifts at the door of a single elderly woman living alone. I know she struggles financially and must be lonely. I like to think of her feeling like she has a Christmas miracle happening to her once a year." — @blacktransampinkguy