The beach towel that turned into a vacation in South America
My mum went to a holiday exhibition in Manchester. This was back in 2002 when the Internet was not so hot! She was given a flyer advertising the Telegraph website. If you logged on and typed in the special code, you could win a prize. So, it transpired my lucky old mum had won a beach towel! She was absolutely chuffed to bits and that was enough for her!
To claim that towel, she had to send email and then you were automatically entered for a prize draw to win the holiday of a lifetime…
Meanwhile, in my boring world, my (rather richer than me – which wasn’t hard as I was skint!) a friend had asked me if I wanted to come on a tour to South America with her. She had always wanted to see the Incas, etc. Now, I hadn’t even really heard of the Incas, I am ashamed to now admit! I racked my brains thinking how I could manage to achieve this. Even thought about walking there…er no! No, no, there was just no way of doing it. So this frustrated Christopher Columbus wannabe had to stay in my little ol’ town in North West England with my dreary underpaid, undervalued grey job.
Back to mother dearest….
Well, it turns out, as she had emailed to claim her beach towel; she won yet another prize, this time much bigger than a beach towel – dearest mom has won a 5 weeks adventure tour to South America from Dragoman for one!
As it turned out, she was the ONLY entrant that week for the prize draw! And probably one of the only people in the country that would be disappointed with such a prize! Luckily enough, she had a selfless, loving, sacrificing daughter that just happened to be cracking her head, at that time, trying to find way to pay for that same trip. The Telegraph was most obliging to list the ticket in my name and my most desired dream for that time came true.
The following week, the Telegraph was offering a luxury fortnight to a super duper resort in somewhere fabulous like the Maldives! One day, I aim to win such a prize to pay back my mum for her generosity. She deserves it for being satisfied with just a beach towel! A lovely one all the same!
