Beyonce super-fan dreams of intimate UK gig meeting

An Angus woman whose battle with Parkinson’s disease stops her attending big concerts says it would be a dream come true to meet her idol Beyonce at one of the star’s reported upcoming “intimate” UK gigs.

Wheelchair-user Gwen Denholm, from Kirriemuir, relies on carers to help her on a daily basis.

The 55-year-old is a super-fan of Beyonce, who she first heard on the radio during her daily commute to work in the early 2000s.

Gwen is creator of a Facebook fan group dedicated to the US singer, which has more than 12,600 members.

She even says her love of the star’s music saved her life during a mental health battle.

When it was rumoured last week that Beyonce is planning a series of pop-up performances in the UK to promote her next album, Gwen was over the moon.

The retired nurse says she finds it “impossible” to secure accessible tickets to concerts, as they are limited and sell out quickly.

Gwen said: “It would just be absolutely agony for me sitting through a big concert.

“Once I’ve been bumped about in the car for a couple of hours I’m left with a lot of stiffness and pain.

“But if I went to a small venue where I could get up out of my wheelchair, maybe have a wee walk about, sit back down again, I would be OK.

“And the intimacy of it as well means I wouldn’t be pushed around if there was a lot of people there.

“It’s my dream. Beyonce always says ‘dream big’ and I’m dreaming big.”

Beyonce’s team is scouting UK venues for the special shows ahead of a “huge tour”. It comes after Beyonce announced last week that her seventh solo album – the first in six years – will be released on July 29.

The first single Break My Soul, from the album, Renaissance, was released yesterday.

Gwen said: “I’ve got to meet her, I cannot let this go. I’ve got to meet her if she comes to the UK.”

She wants to tell Beyonce how her Facebook group, named Beyhive Momma, has helped people around the world with their mental health.

She said: “We are a fanbased group but we also are very linked to mental health challenges. We help each other.

“Members can post anonymously to get help on the group.

“I feel the love we all have for Beyonce has saved a lot of lives in my group, including my own.”

Gwen, who also suffers from bipolar disorder, said Beyonce’s music helped her when she was admitted to the mental health ward at the now closed Sunnyside Royal Hospital in Hillside.

She said: “I wasn’t mixing very much with people on the wards, so I tended to go about with headphones on and sort of will myself better through her music. I thought ‘I can do this. I can do this’. And I used her music to get myself better.”

And Gwen already knows exactly what she’d want to ask Beyonce if she did get to meet the superstar. She said: “I think I would focus on family – her family, my family – just talk about what she does in her private time rather than what we get to see.

“Does she sit and draw and do cookie making with the little ones? I just want to know these quirky little things.”

Gwen Denholm at home with some of her Beyonce memorabilia.