We received some very sad news on Monday 22nd March 2021 that one of our long-serving driving instructors, Martin Mayston, based in Bedford had passed away in the early hours of Friday 19th March. Martin had been fighting motor neurone disease (MND) since 2018.
At the start of his diagnosis and throughout the middle stages of the disease, he orchestrated many fundraising events to contribute to his chosen charity and help others suffering from MND in the future. He, his family, friends, fellow driving instructors and pupils raised a whopping £15,325 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. You can visit his fundraising page here.
Raising this amount of money while battling this disease at the same time is amazing and is testament to how Martin was loved and appreciated by everyone around him.
Martin began working with driveJohnson’s approximately 7 years ago and, during his time with the company, it can be safely said that he was a model instructor. He was a very proud man and believed in serving his pupils well. His statistics on our system shows he has zero complaints throughout his time with us, which is an obvious sign he was doing a cracking job. Hundreds of pupils passed their driving test with Martin.
He had been a driving instructor for approximately 15 years, and towards the end of his career he ventured into instructor training and helping others become driving instructors with our company too. He was definitely an instructor who wanted to improve and develop so he could be better, have more job satisfaction and, of course, pass his wisdom onto others.
On a personal note, I got to know Martin pretty well. Even though he didn’t need the company much, he still loved being involved. If there were meetings, get togethers or the annual driveJohnson’s Christmas party, he was usually there. We would regularly talk and he got to know the staff in the office very well too. His ability to communicate and basically be an all-round charmer won over the ladies and myself in the office. He had a charming way of being sarcastic towards me which would usually result in me doing what he wanted or, failing that, we would laugh and banter with each other about it.
This was a man who shared a similar ethos to myself: it pays to be nice to people. It doesn’t matter if you have good or bad luck, just be nice to everyone and it will serve you well in the long run.
There were no conscious motives behind his kindness and helpfulness, it was just his nature.
Martin will be dearly missed by his family, friends, fellow instructors and his pupils for sure. They say time is a healer and I hope this is the case particularly for Martin’s family.
Rest in peace, Martin – you will be missed.
Anthony Johnson
Company Director
