Rob Rinder has announced that his father, David Rinder, died at the age of 73 after being diagnosed with an illness that the author and TV judge described as 'desperately under-researched'. David Rinder, who worked as a London black cab driver for more than 40 years, had been living with Lewy body dementia.
David Rinder's life and career as a London cabbie
Writing on Instagram, Rinder shared that his father was 'a London cabbie & lifelong Spurs supporter, he was there for every one of my brothers' and grandsons' football matches'. He also recalled a humorous moment: 'I once represented him at the Carriage Office for bad driving; I loved him but the prosecution had a case…'
Rinder, known for presenting documentaries on the Holocaust and co-hosting travel shows with Rylan Clark, noted that his parents divorced when he was young, so he did not grow up with his father at home. 'We were very different men. I loved opera and all its drama; he loved Tottenham and cigarettes. We both took people as we found them and we both loved women, though in rather different ways.'
Rinder's tribute and advocacy for Lewy body dementia
Rinder continued: 'I never once doubted his pride in me. When I came out he responded with magnificent indifference: I was still his son, there was nothing else to discuss.' In his final years, David Rinder was cared for at Jewish Care, where Rinder said 'dignity and tenderness were practised every day'. He added: 'Walid and Tosin, among so many others there, cared for him and came to kiss him goodbye. A Jewish man, held in his final days by people of different faiths: a quiet reminder that what is sacred in us is also what we share. He died with his family around him loved and held to the last.'
Rinder, a vocal patron and advocate for the Lewy Body Society, used the announcement to raise awareness about the condition. He wrote: 'At least one in ten people living with dementia has Lewy body's, around 125,000 people in the UK yet it remains poorly understood, frequently missed & desperately under-researched. Please learn its name, learn its signs and if you can support the work to change that.'
Impact of Lewy body dementia on families
Rinder concluded his tribute by reflecting on the disease: 'Lewy body dementia took him far too young. It made the familiar strange and the certain uncertain. Dementia can obscure a person but it does not erase them.' The post has drawn attention to the condition, which Rinder says is 'poorly understood' and affects approximately 125,000 people in the UK.
