Ripley pupil travels to school prom in style thanks to Royal Lancaster Infirmary doctor

Olen Howden and Dr Marwan Bukhari with the F-type Jaguar.Olen Howden and Dr Marwan Bukhari with the F-type Jaguar.
Olen Howden and Dr Marwan Bukhari with the F-type Jaguar.
Pupils often turn up to their school prom in luxury cars but one young man went about it in a most unusual way.

Olen Howden, 16, a pupil at Ripley St Thomas CE Academy in Lancaster, had passed a stunning F-type Jaguar on his way to school for several months.

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The car was always parked in the staff car park at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI) so one day Olen decided to leave a note on the windscreen asking if there was any chance he could have a lift to his prom.

Olen was surprised and happy to hear back from the car’s owner, Dr Marwan Bukhari, a consultant rheumatologist for University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Marwan Bukhari, Olen Howden, Svatava Hrazdilova and Bela Howden at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary with the F-type Jaguar.Dr Marwan Bukhari, Olen Howden, Svatava Hrazdilova and Bela Howden at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary with the F-type Jaguar.
Dr Marwan Bukhari, Olen Howden, Svatava Hrazdilova and Bela Howden at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary with the F-type Jaguar.

Dr Bukhari was only too pleased to help out and on Thursday, June 20 he met Olen and gave him a lift to the prom.

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Olen’s grandmother, Svatava Hrazdilova, and his sister, Bela Howden, both from Lancaster, were delighted to watch him and Dr Bukhari driving off in the car.

Olen said: “I thought it would be a great prom car. It was amazing.”

Dr Bukhari said: “Olen is a very enterprising young man. He left a note for me behind the screen wash in a plastic bag. I was very happy to drive him to his prom.”

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Olen Howden and Dr Marwan Bukhari in the F-type Jaguar.Olen Howden and Dr Marwan Bukhari in the F-type Jaguar.
Olen Howden and Dr Marwan Bukhari in the F-type Jaguar.

In return for Dr Bukhari’s kind gesture, the family has made a generous donation to a national arthritis charity.

By coincidence, it was also national Rheumatoid Arthritis Awareness Week when Olen’s prom took place.

Olen said he now feels that he has given back to the community and his goal in life is to earn enough money to buy his own Jaguar.

He said: “I would like to thank Dr Bukhari for driving me to the prom and making me feel like I was on a race track!”

Svatava added: “Dr Bukhari is very kind. Olen is a lucky boy.”

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