The wonderful moment a 96-year-old Tom Jones superfan’s dream came true
At the final concert of his worldwide tour, Welsh singing legend Sir Tom Jones made one fan’s wish come true.
Self-confessed superfan, 96-year-old Sylvia lives in a residential home in Colchester, in Essex.
The nonagenarian recently made what she thought was an absolutely crazy wish that she believed would probably never come true – she said that she wanted to meet Sir Tom Jones.
However all her dreams became reality when’s he met the singing star, thanks to the FaNs Network and the generosity of the Welshman and his team.
The FaNs Network are friends and neighbours across Essex supporting care homes and their residents in the area.
Part of their support is the Essex Fans Wishing Washing Line, where care home residents can make a wish that the FaNs Network will try and make come true.
When the group saw that Sir Tom and his band were playing in Essex at Heritage Live at Audley End House and Gardens in Saffron Walden they swung into action to try and make Sylvia’s wish come true.
After much hard work there was joy unconfined when they managed to pull it off and the Tom Jones superfan met her idol.
And judging by the video they posted Sylvia and the care home staff who took her to the show had the best time ever.
In a post on their Facebook page the FaNs network posted a message thanking the many people who had made it happen.
They wrote:
Bit of a long post this, but….WOW!! THIS REALLY HAPPENED! We’re still pinching ourselves that Tom Jones took time out of his schedule, an hour before performing to thousands and thousands of people, to grant the wish of 96 year old Sylvia from Crouched Friars Residential Home, who’s wish on the #essexfanswishingwashingline was to meet her lifelong idol!
This just DOES NOT happen, so for us to be granted exclusive access is absolutely incredible! Sylvia, Lyn, Yvonne and Tony were given VIP treatment, buggies around site, access to VIP area and accessible viewing all courtesy of Giles Cooper and their amazing team! Sylvia had the best night ever and made memories to last a lifetime!
Huge thanks go to Katie Patricia Jean Donnelly for setting the plan in motion, to Paddy Milner from Jawbone who is also Sir Tom’s keyboard player, Tom Cleary for the introduction, Jacqui Cooper, Abigail Potter and the whole GCE Events team for treating us with such love and care, from Rob who helped us with the parking, the GCE access team and VIP steward Paul, who, despite the rain, laid his coat over Sylvia’s lap for the whole evening!
We made some new friends that’s for sure, and even the drizzle couldn’t dampen our fabulous day! The Wishing Washing Line was designed to create these unique and wonderful opportunities for older people in residential care to live their dreams, so when people tell us it’s impossible, it just spurs us on even more! The sky is the limit.
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