A GREAT-GRANDMOTHER from Liden had to cancel her 80th birthday party plans because of the pandemic- but family and friends brought the party to her.

Cards full of good wishes flooded in for Angela Lang from all over the world after her loved ones secretly worked together to send and collate together a huge pile of birthday cards - one for each year that she has been alive.

Their plan proved more successful than expected because 107 of them arrived from Dubai, Bermuda, Australia, New York, Andorra, and Spain along with several bouquets of flowers.

Angela and her husband Chris have three children, Suzanne, Debbie and David, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Even former colleagues from NatWest and Burmah Castrol who Angela had not seen for decades sent in their birthday best wishes after being contacted on Facebook by her relatives.

It came as a total surprise to Angela, who received the pile of colourful cards when she visited Debbie in Frome to have lunch on her special day.

She said: “I was so overwhelmed, I didn’t think I deserved it all at first, I feel so lucky. I’m still looking through them all, it’s bringing back so many memories.

“I did suspect something was going on because there were a lot of phone calls I could not be part of. Our children thought of the idea, they wanted to do something different.

“Everyone was disappointed when we had to cancel the party plans but we had to be realistic. We still managed to see the whole family over Zoom - it’s not quite the same but it was still nice.

“It was our eldest daughter Suzanne’s birthday on the same day so it was a double celebration.”

Suzanne lives in Dubai and was going to fly over to see her parents on Tuesday but the pandemic cancelled those plans.

She said: “Mum has always been very involved in all our lives and our friends. Debbie came up with the cards idea, to make her feel loved and special.

“So, we asked people to send a card with a short message reminding her of how they know her.”

Chris added: “Debbie had a lot of the cards and our neighbours collected any that were being sent to us directly, they did a good job of keeping it quiet.

“Our neighbours have looked after us during lockdown, they have been phenomenal.

"We haven’t been to a shop since March but they make sure to get us anything we need.”

Angela said: “We have lived in this house since it was built in 1977 and seen a lot of comings and goings over the years but we could not ask for better neighbours.

“Our family has been lovely. I’m not sure where we’re going to put all these cards!”