After writing to notable television presenter and journalist, Alex Lovell, John, who lives at HC-One’s
The Westbury care home, in Wiltshire, received a much-welcomed garden visit on Thursday 9th June.
In 2009 John Murrin, who is a Resident at the 44-bed care home, was invited to the BBC studios by then Weatherman Richard Angwin. Richard did a piece on his show where viewers would send in a photo of them enjoying the weather. In response, John decided to send one in, and Richard aired the photo on the programme. This photo depicted Richard, his friends and dog enjoying the sunshine.
John, who worked for 50 years in farming and factory work, would go on to send one photo in every day and that’s when Richard decided to invite him to the studios. Here, he was shown around the studio, and it was then that he met Alex Lovell. During this visit, they chatted and took photographs together. John was invited back to visit a couple more times after and both have kept in touch ever since.
During some recent correspondence, John asked Alex if she would like to visit him in the residential and nursing care home, which he moved into in spring 2022, and this was organised straight away.
So this June, Alex, who is on the BBC news and popular children’s TV program ‘Big Dave & Little Alex’, came to visit John with her loveable Labrador Harvey. They sat in the sun, accompanied by one of John’s three children, daughter Theresa Cain, and shared an afternoon tea with cake; they chatted for a few hours.
John, was so thrilled to see Alex after all this time, he said that she is still the same kind and happy person he met all those years ago. He commented, “It was lovely to see Alex after all these years, she hasn’t changed, still bubbly and caring.”
Theresa Chacko, Care Home Manager, commented, “John was really excited to see Alex, he made sure his son brought in one of his best shirts and it was really nice to see John so happy after his visit.”