Filey pair’s birthday surprise for patient
Cafe owners travel to Manchester to make customer his favourite treat
A Filey cafe owner was among a kind-hearted group of people who made an ill patient’s birthday wishes come true. Sheffield man Graham Lomax, who has been diagnosed with motor-neurone disease, should have celebrated his 59th birthday with his biker friends riding along the coast where the motorcyclists always enjoy stopping at their favourite café, the Sugarcube in Filey, for a steaming mug of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and marshmallows.
Instead the staff at University Hospital of South Manchester’s (USHM) acute intensive care unit rang café owners Ian Johnson and Amy Gomez for the recipe so that they could recreate the tasty treat.
However, on hearing of his special day, the café owners got in the car with two of their children and set off on the cross country journey to whip up the hot beverage for their loyal customer.
The staff even arranged for members of Mr Lomax’s bike club to visit him in the unit’s courtyard garden and took him outside to enjoy the sunshine with his friends.
Other birthday treats included embroidering a special UHSM patch for his leather biker waistcoat and baking him a special motorbike tyre cake to celebrate his big day.
Mr Lomax said: “From day one the nurses have been so brilliant and fantastic, there’s none better. They have gone over and above what’s asked of them. They are the true meaning of nursing and it’s not a job it’s a way of life.
“There’s never anything that they won’t do. I spoke to one of the nurses about my favourite café and didn’t even tell her the name but she found it out.
“Loandbeholdonmybirthday they turned up to make the hot chocolate for me. It took about 4.5 hours to get here, so I can’t believe Ian and Amy did all that for me. I’m amazed and was so shocked and surprised. It was a very emotional day and it was a tremendous thing that they did.” Mr Johnson said: “It was a pleasure to meet all the nurses and Graham and to see them smiling. If all you can do in life is bring a smile to a few people’s faces then that’s great.” This year’s Filey Bird Observatory and Group’s “Ringing and Migration Week” featured a free programme of events all about birds and migration.
Members of the group raised money for Saint Catherine’s Hospice by holding a daily book sale at the ringing station and a raffle at one of the group’s evening talks.
A spokesman for the group said: “We’re very happy to report that, thanks to generosity of members, locals and visitors alike, we raised £200 for this fantastic local charity.” Chris Blakeley - who looked after the sales and merchandise throughout the week - is pictured handing over the donation to Amity Dunn from Saint Catherine’s Hospice.
Chris said: “Many of our members have good reason to be grateful to Saint Catherine’s and its fantastic staff, and we’d like to thank everybody for being so generous during the week.”
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