Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Happy 17th to Tom – the Leap Day-born grandad gets a ‘real birthday’ only every four years!
Years of laughs and jokes about his ‘youth’
CAN you imagine celebrating your 17th birthday with your grandchildren?
That’s exactly what Dundeeborn and raised Tom Cunningham is doing this Leap Day.
The grandad – who will be 68 on today (February 29) – only gets a “real” birthday every four years. But he says he has never missed out.
In fact, the postman, who lives in Coaltown of Balgonie, has always felt special because of his unique birthdate.
“When I was a kid, my mum would make a fuss. She didn’t want me to miss out on the years that I didn’t have a real birthday.
“So I would get two birthdays instead – we would celebrate on February 28 and then March 1.
“She would tell me, ‘Your birthday is the last day of February and it’s the first day of March as well’.
“It’s a special birthday, isn’t it? Who else can say they’ve got a birthday like that? Not many.”
Tom even recalls his classmates going to a special effort.
“I remember getting this cardboard cake the students and teacher had made for me when I was five years old,” he said.
These days, Tom tends to celebrate his birthday on the last day of February.
“I normally celebrate with my family, they will usually get me a cake and presents.
“I am hoping they will manage to get 17 candles on the cake.”
Any “leapling” will know there are often a lot of gags to contend with.
“The most common one is, ‘Oh, you’re 17? You’re not even old enough to drink!’ And things like that,” Tom said.
“Or, ‘Oh you’re not 17, you can’t even drive!’
“I usually get a bit of a ribbing for it. And that’s fine, I get a laugh out of it as well.
“People are often surprised because there are not many people who know someone who is born on February 29.
“I feel a bit special about it and whenever it comes up it is a talking point. Whenever I need to give my date of birth over the phone and they always go, ‘February 29?! What?! No, that can’t be right!’ and so on.”
Tom grew up as one of five siblings.
“I remember my sister June being born in the bedroom. I must have been five or something at the time,” he said.
“It was me and my two eldest brothers, a brother below him and then June, the youngest.
“She was dead special because mum and dad had always wanted a wee girl but had four boys. And then they had June, so June got away with murder.
“We weren’t well off. We lived in a tenement for a few years then moved to a terrace house.
“My dad was a labourer and he worked hard. From the age of about 14 he had been carrying coal bags and whatever else.
“Mum was from the East End of London. She met my dad after the war. He was in the Navy, and she was attached to it in some way.
“They met down south anyway and fell in love, then up they came to Scotland.”
After leaving Morgan Academy, Tom worked on a pipeline system between Aberdeen and Grangemouth.
“Then, I got a job in the Dundee Dye Works,” he said.
“It was funny because I’d come home a different colour every night.”
The dad-of-two went on to join the Civil Service, where he worked in a variety of roles for more than 30 years.
It was while working at Lindsay House in Dundee that he met his future wife Eileen, who he went on to have two children with, Tom and Hannah.
“Eileen came in and asked me something,” Tom recalls. “She was still relatively new to that office, and the person who was mentoring her had said, ‘Go up and tell Tom such and such’.
“And I think I said something like, ‘That’s wrong, go tell him this’. So her nose was a bit out of joint. But strangely enough there was a spark there and we just gradually got together.
“We got married in 1987, then Ross came along, and a little while later Hannah, and then we moved to Glenrothes.”
Although the couple are no longer together, Tom says they have remained good friends.
“We separated about five years ago,” he said.
“But one thing that does keep us together is the kids, and obviously the grandkids.”
It is clear family is a number one priority for Tom, who is fiercely proud of his children.
“We were delighted with Ross and Hannah getting into university,” he said.
“Hannah got into St Andrews to do maths and Ross went to Stirling to do media studies.
“Hannah works for JP Morgan as an executive assistant and Ross works in press in marketing.”
Together, Tom and Eileen watch daughter Hannah’s children, Clark, 7, and Zoe, 5, every Thursday.
Despite nearing retirement age, Tom, who moved into a new house in Coaltown of Balgonie earlier this month, says he has no interest in slowing down.
Since leaving the civil service in the 2010s, he has worked as a delivery driver. In December, he became a postie.
“This job is great for me,” he said. “I’ve lost over two stone since I started.”
And that’s a good thing, as the birthday boy has a few more milestones he would like to reach.
“I suppose my 21st birthday is going to be quite a special one.”
Laughing, he added: “But if I could get to 50, that would be great.”