Post by katrien on Apr 16, 2005 10:42:33 GMT 1
Mum's heartfelt note gets Nicky dream date
THE past 18-months have proved a challenge for young mum Nicky Barson.
The 28-year-old was forced to quit work after developing rheumatoid arthritis. The crippling condition has also limited the amount of activities she can enjoy with her children, which has proved hard to take.
So her mum decided to do something guaranteed to cheer her daughter up: help Nicky meet her chart idols, Westlife.
She was picked to greet the group before their Brighton gig in March after her mum Jenny wrote a heartfelt letter to Radio Mercury host Chris Oxlade.
The touching note was read out on air, and the DJ gave Nicky a surprise call to tell her the news. "It was all a bit of a shock and I didn't really believe it at the start," she said. "I had to ring my mum to check she had written to them."
The housewife, from Redhill, has followed the group since they first hit the charts and even has posters in her bedroom, which she says her husband Michael, 29, doesn't seem to mind.
Her dad Stuart was on hand to make sure things ran smoothly.
"I wouldn't have got to meet them without my dad. He drove to Crawley to pick up the confirmation letter and came and picked me up and drove me to Brighton," said Nicky, who used to go to Woodhatch School, now Reigate School.
"It was brilliant. I got autographs and photographs."
The best moment was when she cheekily asked her favourite, Nicky Byrne, for a kiss.
"I had a kiss from Nicky, that was pretty much perfect," said the former Sandcross School pupil.
"I was the only one brave enough to ask them for a kiss. But if you don't ask you don't get."
And meeting the quartet before the show made it even more special. "It was brilliant," she said. "It made it better knowing that we had seen them first."
Speaking of her mum's decision to write to the "ox'll fix it" feature on Mercury FM, she said: "Because they read the letter out on the radio, I was crying. To go and do something like that, she knows it would be my dream come true, it was very heartwarming."
Her mum knew that meeting her musical idols would cheer up Nicky.
When she was diagnosed with arthritis, all her joints were inflamed. She now has about six joints which are painful every day.
She has to take regular medication and has supports on her wrists to ease the pain.
Nicky, of Flint Close, had to give up her job at a finance company and finds it hard that she cannot do things with her children Jasmine, seven, and Jack, four.
"I feel that I am letting them down," she said. "I am told that I'm not, but from a personal point of view I feel that I am."
Her mum Jenny, 58, who lives in Staplehurst Close, Woodhatch, said she wanted to do something special for her daughter because she had been feeling so low.
She managed to get hold of a radio to listen to the show on the day of the meeting.
"It was the surprise in her voice when it came on the air," she said. "It was quite emotional because I didn't realise that the letter was going to be read out on the air."
THE past 18-months have proved a challenge for young mum Nicky Barson.
The 28-year-old was forced to quit work after developing rheumatoid arthritis. The crippling condition has also limited the amount of activities she can enjoy with her children, which has proved hard to take.
So her mum decided to do something guaranteed to cheer her daughter up: help Nicky meet her chart idols, Westlife.
She was picked to greet the group before their Brighton gig in March after her mum Jenny wrote a heartfelt letter to Radio Mercury host Chris Oxlade.
The touching note was read out on air, and the DJ gave Nicky a surprise call to tell her the news. "It was all a bit of a shock and I didn't really believe it at the start," she said. "I had to ring my mum to check she had written to them."
The housewife, from Redhill, has followed the group since they first hit the charts and even has posters in her bedroom, which she says her husband Michael, 29, doesn't seem to mind.
Her dad Stuart was on hand to make sure things ran smoothly.
"I wouldn't have got to meet them without my dad. He drove to Crawley to pick up the confirmation letter and came and picked me up and drove me to Brighton," said Nicky, who used to go to Woodhatch School, now Reigate School.
"It was brilliant. I got autographs and photographs."
The best moment was when she cheekily asked her favourite, Nicky Byrne, for a kiss.
"I had a kiss from Nicky, that was pretty much perfect," said the former Sandcross School pupil.
"I was the only one brave enough to ask them for a kiss. But if you don't ask you don't get."
And meeting the quartet before the show made it even more special. "It was brilliant," she said. "It made it better knowing that we had seen them first."
Speaking of her mum's decision to write to the "ox'll fix it" feature on Mercury FM, she said: "Because they read the letter out on the radio, I was crying. To go and do something like that, she knows it would be my dream come true, it was very heartwarming."
Her mum knew that meeting her musical idols would cheer up Nicky.
When she was diagnosed with arthritis, all her joints were inflamed. She now has about six joints which are painful every day.
She has to take regular medication and has supports on her wrists to ease the pain.
Nicky, of Flint Close, had to give up her job at a finance company and finds it hard that she cannot do things with her children Jasmine, seven, and Jack, four.
"I feel that I am letting them down," she said. "I am told that I'm not, but from a personal point of view I feel that I am."
Her mum Jenny, 58, who lives in Staplehurst Close, Woodhatch, said she wanted to do something special for her daughter because she had been feeling so low.
She managed to get hold of a radio to listen to the show on the day of the meeting.
"It was the surprise in her voice when it came on the air," she said. "It was quite emotional because I didn't realise that the letter was going to be read out on the air."
