A fashion blogger from Leeds flew 3,500 miles to surprise his mum on her dream 60th birthday holiday after pretending he couldn’t make it.
Stanley Dru secretly planned a surprise arrival for Donna Roderick’s big trip to Dubai along with her friends Ceri Davies and Gemma Bosher.
Stanley, 37, flew to Dubai then called his mum asking about her holiday but what she didn’t know was he was actually behind her at a restaurant.
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Donna jumped when she heard her son's voice as he creeped up behind her and was in utter shock to see him earlier this month.
Little did Donna know, Stanley had planned to surprise his mum and had set out a whole itinerary for her and her pals when he arrived.
“She was so bewildered to see me,” Stanley, his social name but real name is Luke Williams said.
“Mum asked me in July if I’d be able to come on the trip with her friends and I just said I’m sorry I won’t be able to.
“But I immediately messaged her friends in a private chat to say I was in.
“We had it all planned for months but I slipped up so many times when she was talking about Dubai.
“Somehow she didn’t twig.
“I arrived the day before her and had the girls arrange a late lunch at a beach club for the next day.
“I rang her to ask her about the holiday and slowly walked up behind her with my partner Tom.
“Then I started talking about her outfit and said ‘have you got that white dress on.’
“She still didn’t hear me until I said ‘it looks lovely on you.’
“Then she turned around shocked.
“She slipped out a few naughty words but I just gave her a big hug.
“She didn’t expect it at all.”
He added: "We spent the next four days having afternoon tea, swimming in the hotel with the 360 degree view, and taking marina tours.
“We made every minute count. She never has experiences like this on holiday so I wanted to make it special.”
Donna, who runs a cleaning business, had saved up for the last year for her holiday trip with her friends and had invited Stanley and his partner Tom Sheard, 32, a content creator.
“We kept it a secret for four months that we were actually coming,” Stanley said.
“There were so many times where she’d talk about Dubai and we’d slip up and say ‘we can’t wait.’
“We’d have to quickly correct ourselves and say ‘we can’t wait for you.’”
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