A bus driver who was honoured by the late Queen Elizabeth II for services to the community during the pandemic has been invited to the coronation of King Charles III.
Simon Taylor, who works for First Bus Eastern Counties, is "on cloud nine" after receiving his letter from Buckingham Palace.
When the invitation fell through the letterbox of his home in Gorleston, the 35-year-old was in Dublin, where he is working with a sister company for three months.
Eager to get his hands on the letter, Mr Taylor flew back from the Irish capital for 24 hours so that he could pick it up from a post office in Great Yarmouth.
READ MORE: Gorleston vicar receives invitation to Royal coronation
Staff there spotted the letter had been sent from Buckingham Palace and he told them it was an invitation to the coronation - of course they begged him then to open the envelope on the spot.
"I wasn't going to open it there but I opened it with the postal staff. They were super excited as well. It was a special moment," Mr Taylor said.
READ MORE: Coronation celebration planned for housing estate in Gorleston
He has since returned to Dublin but will fly back to London for the coronation.
"It's absolutely beautiful. It's literally unbelievable. I got little shivers," he said.
READ MORE: ‘I broke my cooker’ - Bus driver who cooked curries for colleagues honoured by Queen
In 2020, Mr Taylor was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for cooking curries for his colleagues at First Bus during the coronavirus lockdown.
He would cook up to 80 meals of curry and rice everyday at home before heating the meals up at work and giving them free of charge to the other workers.
At the time, after learning he had been included in that year’s honours list, Mr Taylor’s first reaction was: “I thought it was a scam. I was like, woah, what is this? I said this is a big deal. If this is a scam, I’ve not seen this one before.”
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