Leeds pensioner passed driving test aged 79 so he can take ill wife on trips

Keith Limbert from Garforth, who has passed his driving test aged 79, after his wife Anne fell ill.
Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe — Keith Limbert from Garforth, who has passed his driving test aged 79, after his wife Anne fell ill. Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe

Mr Limbert, of Garforth, started taking lessons after his wife Anne, also 79, suffered a debilitating stroke in October 2015 and was in hospital for six weeks.

Mrs Limbert, who has difficulty walking and uses a wheelchair, had passed her driving test in 1972 but was left unable to drive after the stroke and the couple had to rely on lifts.

Mr Limbert, who survived colon cancer himself aged 60, became her full time carer and numerous further hospital visits continued after she was diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time around 18 months ago.

Keith Limbert with wife Anne. Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe

He said he spent a “fortune I don’t have” on a total of 40 driving lessons before he finally passed his driving test last month at the third attempt.

Mr Limbert said: “I take Anne out every day to have a coffee and a scone, either to a garden centre or somewhere else.

“We would go stir crazy if we were stuck in the house all week.”

The couple, who have three children and three grandchildren, are now enjoying a “new lease of life” according to their eldest daughter Shelly Bennett, 54.

Mrs Bennett, of Normanton, said: “My mum used to chauffeur him around but after she suffered a stroke she stopped driving.

“I told him he needed to take his test – it was either that or catch the bus with a wheelchair! He is fit and healthy and quite capable and we are so proud now he has passed his driving test.

“After mum’s stroke things changed for everybody.

“Now dad being able to drive has given them a new lease of life.”

Mrs Limbert, a retired cleaner at the former Garforth Comprehensive School, is fighting breast cancer for a second time after first being diagnosed with the disease in 1998.

Mr Limbert, who worked at the former Barnbow Royal Ordnance Factory in Crossgates, said he had taken one or two driving lessons when he was 25-years-old but soon gave up.

He said: “It didn’t interest me at all so I called it a draw.”

Mr Limbert, who waited more than 50 years before he got behind the wheel again, is now a capable driver.