Shropshire butchers answers last-minute birthday call from Australia
A Shropshire butchers came to the rescue when an Australian woman's birthday treat for her father back in the UK was thwarted by the Covid-19 crisis.
Trish Reilly, who lives in Adelaide, had been planning to buy travel vouchers for her father Bill – until lockdown left the retired army major and his wife confined to their Ironbridge home.
But G.N. Badley and Sons, the family-run butcher based at Gibbons Road in Trench, answered a last-ditch plea from Down Under, and came to the rescue.
"The other thing I know my dad likes other than travel is a good barbecue and a nice steak, so I frantically started searching for local butchers," Trish said.
"Bearing in mind I was literally looking for a delivery within 24 hours in the midst of a pandemic, I was not holding out much hope.
"Badley’s were the only ones to respond. Not only that, they said that given the circumstances they would be happy to help – they turned my order around and delivered on the same day."
Later that day, Badley’s were on the doorstep to surprise Bill, and his wife Trisha – at a social distance - with a bumper delivery which included fillet steak, T-bone steak, back bacon, pork, and a large pork pie.
"I have to say that I felt a little bit like celebrities must feel when they receive special treatment," their daughter said.
"Mum and dad were blown away not only with the surprise, but also with the lady who made the delivery, who they felt was genuinely thrilled to be able to help in making sure that dad got his birthday present all the way from his daughter in Australia.
"They have not stopped raving about the quality of the meat, and say they now can't wait to be out of lockdown so that they can visit the shop themselves."
Trish said she was so grateful for Badley's help and she was blown away by their efforts to make her dad's birthday as special as they could.
She added: "Organising special occasions from the other side of the world is hard enough – but in a pandemic it’s almost impossible.
"I really wanted to express how very grateful and touched I was that the Badley’s team would go so out of their way to help."
