Two inspiring guys meet up for afternoon tea!
You might know that my youngest son Toby has had quite a traumatic life. From the age of 3 months he has had several serious conditions from cancer of the kidney, heart failure, a stroke, burst appendix and in September 2013 he had a heart transplant.
You might also know that some of my passion for Osteopathy comes from the remarkable difference it has made each time to Toby’s recovery. Indeed regular Cranial Osteopathy kept Toby well enough to take two buses to and from college every day whilst coping with severe Cardiomyopathy and being on the heart transplant list. He was so ‘well’ that it was ridiculous!
Next week he turns 19 and he’s now really well and has found happiness with his first girlfriend who is lovely.
Rays of Sunshine
Whilst we were in Great Ormond Street Hospital after the transplant, they gave me a form to apply to Rays of Sunshine for a ‘Wish’ for Toby. Given that he had gone through a great deal in his life, I filled in the form with great detail as to why this would benefit him.
Toby’s No 1 wish was to meet Stephen Fry, I can’t remember the second but the third was to be involved in some filming. Toby is beginning his career as an actor so you can see where he was going.
After a few months, the charity’s representative called me and said that Stephen Fry was incredibly busy, as you might imagine, and would we like to try for the second or third choice? No I said, we’d hold out for the first choice. This happened several more times. Each time I said I would wait for however long it took. I knew just how amazing this opportunity would be to Toby.
Finally, a few weeks ago they said that Stephen definitely wanted to do this but his schedule was really nuts. They told me to pencil in 19 August. Then I got another call and they said that a new production company wanted to sponsor them and when they looked through their list of children, Toby stood out as the perfect guy to go along to represent children who’d got life-threatening or life-shortening conditions.
So we sent him along with his girlfriend Liv to see their current filming and meet the main actor Timothy Spall, the producer and team and be involved in the PR for it all. But we also hinted that this was his ‘Wish’ – partly to keep him off the scent and partly because details were not tied up and I didn’t want to tell Toby and then let him down. It would have crushed him to ‘almost’ have met Stephen Fry.
Finally, the day before the event, I got confirmation that everything was in place. I breathed a huge sign of relief and booked in to the hairdressers!
After two years waiting, the day had finally arrived!
I was expecting a limo to arrive before 2pm to take us to the venue but he turned up at 1pm! Not only that but it was a stonking great stretch limo which, despite the bar along one side, could seat 8 people. The driver was happy to wait or suggested we went sightseeing to use up the spare time.
So we got ready quickly and dashed out to the limo! I wanted Toby and my other son Max to get the best out of the day. Neither knew what we were doing, so this part was really exciting. The driver showed Max how to connect up his phone to the sound system so that we could play our choice of music and off we went.
Handing over an envelope marked ‘Happy Birthday Toby’ I began filming:
http://youtu.be/l4aJNGvO7IA
We sped into London and drove around St James’ Park, Downing Street, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace before finally arriving in Regent Street and to the Hotel Cafe Royal. Siobhan from Rays of Sunshine was waiting to take us into the building and seat us ready for Stephen Fry’s arrival. We were offered Champagne and it seemed churlish to refuse it – despite it being £15 a glass!
The decor in the Oscar Wilde Bar was opulent and apparently its namesake’s favourite spot to hang out in London. The staff were charming and efficient and we were all fidgety waiting for THE moment! Then in he strode, shook our hands whilst saying our names and seated himself next to Toby on the sofa. Right away he started to chat and we all settled down.
Next came an amazing array of amuse bouch, delicate savouries and gorgeous little tastes of sweet heaven:
Then we chatted for ages with no embarrassing gaps! Toby came up with some great questions, as did Max and I also asked him if there was any advice he could give us. He promised that he would ask his own agent what Toby’s best options were and who might be suitable people to be talking to. We couldn’t have asked for more.
Stephen Fry’s secret to success
And then he divulged what he believed to be the one secret to success:
Use your own talents and skills to achieve success. Don’t try to emulate others but be authentic to yourself. He said it was no use writing sketches or shows about unknown people or situations. It was always preferable to write things from the heart, to use the experiences you had had and to create something totally unique with that.
I believe that is so very true about what we do in any business. Coming from a place of authenticity and integrity we should always be creating income doing the things which come naturally and from the heart. That way, it never feels like we’re doing a day’s work in our life.
Kissing me on both cheeks and shaking the boys’ hands, he eventually had to leave. He had stayed longer than expected and didn’t care that he was a little late to his next appointment at a recording studio!
When Siobhan went to see about paying the bill for the afternoon tea, she was told that it had already been taken care of. Now that’s a really generous gesture from a true gentleman.
