Tonnes of love: Recovery truck for birthday girl Keely

He could have bought her a pony but this doting dad really pushed the boat out for his ‘princess’ on her 18th birthday.

John Dalton, known to friends as JD, of JD Recovery in Cork, bought his only child, Keely, a 3.5-tonne Renault Master recovery truck setting her on the road to becoming Ireland’s youngest recovery truck driver.

“Hopefully I’ll have a bigger truck for her for her 21st,” JD joked.

Keely, a sixth-year leaving cert student in St Aloysius, says she’s really looking forward to getting behind the wheel and helping in the family business — once she passes her driving test.

Keely’s father JD and grandfather Frank giving her a push. She learned to drive her own personalised mini-truck aged eight.

But that shouldn’t be a problem for the truck-mad teenager who learned to drive aged eight in her own personalised mini-truck.

“I grew up with trucks and just like being on the road, going out in the trucks to different jobs, meeting all types of situations and people. I don’t like to be in the office,” she said.

I think it’s important that if you want to do something, and if you love to do it, you shouldn’t let age or anything else get in the way.

JD Recovery was founded more than 20 years ago by JD’s father, Frank, following his retirement. He bought a recovery truck to keep busy but the business took off.

Today, the firm has a fleet of 10 trucks and two vans on call 24-hours a day, recovering anything from motorbikes to articulated trucks, and managing the Garda vehicle compound for the region.

When Keely was younger, JD had the cab of his huge Daf XF truck, christened ‘Princess Keely’, spraypainted with photos of her as a baby and a child.

When she was eight, he built a single-seater mini-truck for her and had it customised, complete with bright purple wheels, lovely pink flowers, and a glamorous silver badge on the bumper with her name, and her pet pooch’s name, Molly inside pink hearts.

Now she has just one more driving lesson to take before she can take her driving test.

Keely Dalton in a recovery truck with her image on it at their family business at Glanmire, Cork.

“I’m a bit nervous about the test but I’m hoping for the best,” she said.

She then plans to get her truck licence so she can drive the 12-tonne trucks.