15 October 2010

A Birthday To Remember

A Burnham-on-Sea woman fulfilled a lifetime ambition on her 60th Birthday by driving a coach around Weston-super-Mare airfield.

Maureen James, who works in a hair salon in Weston-super-Mare, took to the wheel of the (46 – seater), Bakers Dolphin coach after she was surprised by her husband Arthur, who organised the special birthday treat.

Maureen said: “I received a letter from Bakers Dolphin inviting me to the office for the new summer brochure launch which I thought was nice – I thought I would be drinking a cup of tea and deciding where I wanted to go on holiday next year!

“When I arrived I was presented with a bouquet of flowers and told that I was going to drive a coach - I was completely stunned.

“I’ve wanted to drive a coach for years but never thought it would actually happen – I started to get nervous when I realised what I was about to do!

“I go on a lot of Bakers Dolphin coach tours and so to finally be behind the wheel of a coach was truly amazing, the vehicles are so big I have even more respect to the drivers that make it look easy!

“I’m so thankful to my husband for organising this and to everyone at Bakers Dolphin for trusting me with one of their coaches. “

Amanda Harrington, sales and marketing director said: “Maureen has been holidaying with us for 20 years so we were more than happy to help Arthur organise this surprise for her.

“Maureen is such a regular customer that everyone at Bakers Dolphin knows her well and we were really happy to help spring the birthday surprise on her when we learned that she had always wanted to get behind the wheel of a coach.”