Twitter plea leads to No 10 invite
A group of charity supporters from the West Midlands have been invited to visit 10 Downing Street after a member contacted the Prime Minister's wife via Twitter.
A group of charity supporters from the West Midlands have been invited to visit 10 Downing Street after a member contacted the Prime Minister's wife via Twitter.
John Hibbs, of Hednesford, sent a message to Sarah Brown to tell her about his plans to run in the London Marathon.
He is raising funds for West Midlands Lupus Group after his 26-year-old sister Vicki Hibbs, also of Hednesford, was diagnosed with the connective tissue disease 18 months ago.
"I asked Sarah Brown if she was aware of lupus and she replied to say she understood how difficult it was living with the condition.
"The next day I sent her another message asking her if she could help out in any way and despite her being in the United States with Gordon Brown she replied and put me in touch with 10 Downing Street," explained 31-year-old Mr Hibbs, of Bakers Way. He said that a group of between 40 and 80 supporters would be going to London on October 6 for a reception and buffet.
The Prime Minister's wife recently collected a high-profile scalp by overtaking Stephen Fry in popularity on the Twitter site.
After joining the social networking service in March, "SarahBrown10" has won the attention of more than 775,000 followers, outstripping the comedian's 768,000.
The army of fans listening into Sarah's "tweets" amounts to almost five times the entire membership of the Labour Party.
Meanwhile Mr Hibbs has also contacted Wolverhampton soul singer Beverley Knight who has agreed to help the group as well.
"We hope she will be able to come to Downing Street as well," he added.
Mr Hibbs, an information technology analyst and part-time football scout for Liverpool, and his family and friends have already raised £3,000 for the group through fun runs and boot sales since his sister, of Whitethorn Close, was diagnosed.
Mr Hibbs himself suffers with arthritis but he is determined that he will complete the marathon course in April next year.
"I have Twitter and Facebook pages to tell people about what I am doing and I am also doing a blog so people can follow my progress from being a complete non-runner to running the marathon," he added.
People can sponsor him through his website at www.hibbsy.com
