My Wish Experience with Zoella (Rays of Sunshine)

This post was originally posted in 2015, I've added a little bit to the beginning to show why wishes are so important to kids with life threatening illnesses but the story remains the same.

On August the 19th in 2015 I had one of the best days of my life. I met the world famous beauty blogger Zoe Sugg, AKA Zoella. 

I had this opportunity thanks to Rays of Sunshine. They are a wish granting company similar to Make A Wish and back when I was 15 Zoe Sugg was one of my idols. RoS ask for three wishes and this was one of mine, I'm grateful now that this was the one that happened as I don't know what I would have done had I met Demi Lovato (she sent me a signed photo though!) and my other wish was to go spend the day at BBC Radio 1 but they couldn't do that one either so I got to meet Zoe. Things like this make CF okay. I have friends who wanted to go to America and swim with dolphins, I've had friends who've met Niall Horan (very jealous of them!) and I 've had friends who've met their favourite sports team. I've been lucky enough that meeting Zoe was my second wish, my first wish was organised by my hospital when I was seven and I went to Disneyland Paris. Meeting Zoe was on my bucket list, and if I hadn't ever have gone to Disney that would've been too. 

Wishes mean that people with life threatening illnesses can have a few hours or days without worrying about the diseases they have. They can meet their idols, go to a place they've always wanted to go or do something they've always wanted to do. I will be forever grateful to the people who were behind both of my wishes, including Zoe who took time out of her busy schedule to meet with three different girls fighting for a bit of normal.

We got the train to Paddington, then the tube to Victoria, and then another train to Brighton. The journey took about 6 hours in total. We jumped in a taxi that took us from the train station to our hotel, the Hilton Brighton Metropole, which is absolutely stunning! There is a small fish and chip shop next door so that was our first mission! We chilled out for that night and got prepared to meet Zoe the next day. 

To start our second day in Brighton we had breakfast in the hotel, I had toast. We decided to stay in the hotel to get ready before meeting Zoe. We had showers, got changed, went next-door to the chip shop and brought back some food, did make up, watched TV, got hungry so had more chips, then finally it was time to meet Zoe. We went to the hotel 15 minutes before we were due to meet her, so we sat in the bar and had a drink. It wasn't long before a lady from Rays Of Sunshine had come over to take us up. I could see another fan, Kat (@katzclaws on Instagram, go follow her!) leaving and she looked so happy, I was so excited! The lady from Rays Of Sunshine asked if we needed a sharpie to which I replied "YES" a bit over excitedly...

We walked up two flights of stairs and I could feel myself starting to shake and as we approached the door of the room that Zoe was in I heard her laugh and it all sort of became real to me.

Here are some pictures from the encounter.

We talked about me being Welsh, which she picked up almost straight away from the accent, we spoke about school and she wished me luck for my GCSE results, her and Angela (whom I believe is a talent manager at Gleam) worked out a potential business idea for me, as I only eat chips (or fries if you're American) for main meals they've decided I should own a restaurant that only serves chips in different varieties called "Cheap as Chips", which isn't a bad idea let's be honest. We spoke about my time in Las Vegas and the lady from Rays Of Sunshine mentioned that Joe might be going there with a wish to go boating inside and we spoke a bit about Brighton. Zoe asked if I had thought about making a blog or a YouTube channel as I enjoy reading and watching them so much, I replied that I already have the both of them and she said to keep going with them if I enjoyed doing it. So I am. 

Zoe gave me a bag which had her entire Tutti Fruity collection and a signed paperback Girl Online. 

After meeting Zoe we went back to our hotel in a bit of a daze. It still hadn't fully registered that we had met Zoe Sugg. We decided to go to the Churchill Square shopping centre and we went into Topshop where I bought the same jumper as Zoe did that morning without even realising it! We went into some other shops and I bought some new makeup brushes from Real Techniques and I got some new Vans that were the Disney Era ones with Winnie the Pooh on, they are the cutest shoes that I have ever owned! I also got a couple of books from WHSmiths. We explored the Lanes and even went into "Choccywoccydoodah". We went back to the hotel and then we came out again for Nandos at 8.

Our last day was filled with sadness. I genuinely did not want to leave Brighton. We sat on the infamous pebble beach, we went on some rides at the pier, and just 20 minutes before we had to be on the train we decided to get a crepe, best crepe I have ever had! We called a taxi and it took us back to the train station where we bought a few snacks and a magazine or two before getting on the train. Once again it took us about 6 hours to get home.

These three days were some of the best days of my life! I cannot wait to go back to Brighton! If you get the chance to go to Brighton I would highly recommend it. I can see why Zoe wanted to move down there! It's such a lovely area! 

Hope you have enjoyed reading about my time with Zoe and my time in Brighton!

Shannon x