We are nine fat cabbies! Nine middle aged fat London cabbies. With a mission. Well, actually, we have two missions. The first stage is to lose a combined weight of 40 stone between us. And then, once we’ve climbed that mountain, we’re off to Tanzania to take a stroll up Africa’s highest mountain – Kilimanjaro. Impossible? We don’t think so and we’re a bunch of committed and positive people. And we believe that this is possible. Climbing Kilimanjaro is not for the feint hearted and a massive achievement. But to do this, a certain level of fitness, stamina and determination is needed. We may not have the fitness and stamina just yet. But determination- we have bundles. So how are we going to do what seems to be impossible?

It all started with a tweet – “Any other cabbies out there fancy losing weight with me and then climb Kilimanjaro?” I actually didn’t think too many people would be that interested. There was the expected copious amount of leg pulling but what emerged was a group of cabbies who were as serious about this as I was. I started to get a lot of private messages enquiring about this and we’ve ended up with a group of nine cabbies who have committed ourselves from start to finish.

So, here we are. All with the same goals in sight. Between us, we vary from 22 stone down to 16 and we all have individual targets as far as weight loss is concerned. But with a combined weight of 40 stone to lose, we’ve got to get going and start our new regimes. For me personally, I have a few mountains to climb on the way – apart from losing 5 – 7 stone before we hit Kilimanjaro next year, I have also got to quit smoking and I’m quietly hoping to reverse my diabetes Type 2. A middle aged fat bloke ticking so many bad boxes is not good news. As a London cabby, i, as many of my colleagues do, scream very loudly at how wonderful we are. We invest so many years into the Knowledge. We’re consistently voted the number 1 Gold Standard Taxi drivers on the planet. This is all fantastic. But what good is that if I’m 6foot under after suffering a heart attack because I didn’t look after myself? I’ve been told I’m doing too much. Well, if I don’t do it now, I never will. I may not achieve my goal, but I’m going to give it my best shot and I want to be at the top with the rest of the fellas.

We’ve all embarked on our new regimes. Particularly with eating and exercise. Out with the McDonald’s breakfasts and in with porridge’s, poached eggs and muesli! We have our own WhatsApp group where we bounce ideas off each other and generally support each other.

Our journey is commencing and is getting quite a lot of attention on Twitter. Our twitter account is @cabbiesdokilli. A PR company is representing us now and we are actively seeking sponsorship from within and outside the trade.

We are nine very determined cabbies and we all hope we can see this through until the end. We will shortly be setting up a JustGiving page as we want to raise as much money as possible for Taxi Charity. This wonderful charity provide assistance and help to our war veterans and war disabled. Providing entertainment, outings and specialist equipment to those who fought for us. And we are very proud to be supporting such a worthy charity. The link for our JustGiving page will soon be available on our twitter account.

Watch out for us and follow our progress!

Brian

Cliff

Daren

John

Neil

Paul

Paul B

Rosh

Kevin.