RIDING WITH THE PUNCHES

A serious health scare caused Lee Williams to re-evaluate his entire life… including the contents of his garage.

- Holly Daffurn

There is no denying that Lee Williams is a Mini fanatic. He’s had over thirty Minis since he bought (and lovingly handpainted) his first one at the age of 16. He used to take his wife out in it when they first met. Nowadays, the couple have six distinct Minis and three children who all share their passion for our favourite car. They do London to Brighton every year as a family and are regulars at Caffeine & Machine.

A couple of years ago, there was only one Mini in Lee’s garage – a copper and white Minivan with Miglia arches and OS4 turbo rims. On 5th May 2018, after months of careful restoration, Lee and his brother, Carl, finally got the van started. That evening, Lee and the family had some friends over for a barbecue when he started experiencing acute stomach pains. Lee initially brushed it aside, mistaking it for a bad case of food poisoning… or a reflection of his friend’s cooking but the pain got progressing worse until Lee collapsed at 2.30 am. A week later he woke up in the bowel cancer ward at Warwick Hospital. They had found an abscess the size of a honeydew melon, after nine hours in theatre they were still unable to detangle the mass and eventually had to remove much of his bowels. He had a resection done and started the long path back to recovery.