Faith in Humanity: Elderly man with cancer surprised with van
May 1, 2014, 8:00 PM | Updated: 8:52 pm
Thanks to the kindness of his community, Clive Cavendish no longer has to depend on his children or public transportation to make his medical appointments.
Cavendish, 71, of Traverse City, is battling gastrointestinal stromal tumors, “a rare kind of cancer which required the removal of eight feet of his small intestine,” according to The Huffington Post.
When he and his wife arrived at Northwestern Michigan College for the Automotive Service Technology Department’s year-end picnic, the department’s staff and students surprised the carless couple with a 2001 Chrysler Town & Country minivan.
What makes this story even more wonderful is that Cavendish doesn’t actually have an American driver’s license — he moved to the U.S. from England 20 years ago and never took the driving test.
Gregory Smith, the couple’s son, said the new blue minivan should change all that.
“Hopefully this will push him to get on with it,” Smith said with a smile.
Cavendish echoed the sentiment and said he’d get licensed “as soon as possible.”
The minivan was restored and fixed by the automotive department’s students.
