Taxi heroes travel the world to raise money

For most people a taxi journey takes just a few minutes, but one adventurer from Staffordshire decided to travel to Australia with two friends in a London black cab in aid of the British Red Cross.

Leigh Purnell, aged 24, from Burntwood, and Paul Archer and Johno Ellison have already driven from London to Sydney, Australia in their classic black cab. Now the fundraising three are preparing to drive from San Francisco back to London, via Europe.

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The team has already raised £10,000 for the Red Cross' work helping vulnerable people in a crisis in the UK and overseas, and needs help to collect a further £10,000.

In 2009 the three friends bought a 20-year old London black cab for £1,500 on ebay. It already had 100,000 miles on the clock. They named the car Hannah, after the Ella Fitzgerald song about the man-hater Hard-Hearted Hannah, and set about planning their route.

Former Stafford College student Leigh said they set off from Covent Garden, London, in February last year, and covered three continents, 39 countries, 10 times zones and 32,000 miles during their 296-day journey to Australia racking up a bill of £57,000 on the meter.

They have seen the northern lights in Norway, been detained by secret police in Iran and driven to Everest base camp.

The journey took them into Pakistan, through India and on to Nepal where they drove the Friendship Highway into Tibet.

He said: "Tibet was definitely a highlight, the place was mind-blowingly beautiful.

"We drove the taxi to Everest base camp, so perhaps we have also set the record for the world's highest taxi journey.

"To every person who has donated to the British Red Cross on our behalf – they helped us raise around £10,000 so far for their really rather awesome work."

Leigh, along with his friends Paul, 24, from Avening, Gloucestershire, and Johno, from Leeds, who turned 28 in Iraq, arrived in Sydney on December 10. They returned home for Christmas and have gone out to San Francisco after getting the cab shipped there from Australia for the journey home.

The 'It's on the Meter' challenge was dreamed up during a long and expensive taxi ride in 2008. The friends, who all studied at Aston University in Birmingham, decided to try beating the record of 21,690 miles. To donate visit the team's website at www.itsonthemeter.com