There were mixed feelings of joy and sadness when a family brought Christmas forward to 36-year-old Matthew Sandbrook and his family. Matthew Sandbrook was seriously ill. He was the father of three sons Connor, 15, Kyle, 13, and Tyler, 9, and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Rebecca Rushton was his girlfriend.
Mathew’s cousin Nikki lee requested the community to help Mathew’s family to bring some Christmas joy. Then the community joined together turning up dressed in festive gear. They wanted to keep the surprise a secret. The crowd of 200 people gathered on the green near Rodborough Close before moving to Matthew’s home.
As part of their secret plan, suddenly they made snow and streamers fall from the sky and camera phone lights were held up as the crowd sang popular Christmas songs to bring magic to Matthew Sandbrook and his family.
While Mathew and his family watching this surprise the crowd sang Ben E King’s Stand By Me and the other popular Christmas songs such as Shakin Stevens’ Merry Christmas Everyone and The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York.
Merry Christmas Matthew ❤️ Matthew Sandbrook was diagnosed with a brain tumour, so his family brought Christmas forward with a street party. This is the moment the great people of Warndon surprised Matthew.
Posted by BBC Hereford & Worcester on Wednesday, 6 October 2021
Miss Lee said, “the whole event had been absolutely amazing and we have really brought the Christmas spirit to Warndon – we really did it”.
“I can’t believe it. All that hard work, sleepless nights, and text messages to my best friend Sam asking ‘Can we do this?’ has been worth it. My emotions have been up and down but seeing them all together I’m so happy we managed to do it. Thank you to everyone – it meant the world to them.” said Miss Lee.
One of the participants Kristie Cowling said that she did not know Matthew but dressed as an elf handing out glow sticks to children and throwing ‘snow’ into the air to bring a bit of Christmas spirit.
The entire crowd was with a mixed feeling of joy and sadness. But when they saw joy and happiness in the family specially on Mathew’s face the crowd felt that they have done really a good job and their efforts didn’t go in vain.
