A Leeds woman has been left delighted after having a newspaper article she was in more than 55 years ago was delivered back to her.
While undertaking renovation work at a property in Shadwell, Geoff Smith found a Yorkshire Evening Post newspaper from July 10, 1964, scattered all over the floor after removing the carpet.
Geoff, who owns G Smith and Sons Roofing, decided to gather the paper together and then came across an article about the Duke of Edinburgh (DoE) awards which Susan Worthington (nee Calip) was featured in when she was 18-years-old.
Instead of throwing the paper away, Geoff decided to post his finding onto a Facebook group Memories of Leeds. Just hours later, Susan recognised her picture in the paper and reached out to Geoff.
Susan, aged 75, said: “I was on Facebook and recognised myself and I thought oh my god that’s me.
"I sent him a message on the post saying that it was me when I got the award and he got in touch and delivered it to me days later.
“It was wonderful, surreal doing the DoE.
“The DoE was different to how they run it now it was in the early days of the award, it only used to be people belonging to the guides and scouts but I lived in Pudsey at the time and the headteacher decided we would do it as a school with people who come from different backgrounds and walks of life.
“It was a great learning experience."
A week after the article was published in 1964, Susan and her other colleagues met Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh to receive her Gold Award.
Geoff said he usually finds all sorts of goods while renovating homes from forgotten family heirlooms to love letters.
He said: “The story in itself is special. She did it as part of the DoE, it was a long time ago best I was born. The whole house was a time capsule from 1964 with the same carpet, curtain etc., there was no money spent in the house since it was done in the 60s. It was all old furniture but it was a nice building.
“I delivered it to her on Friday 31 July, we were just going to chuck it into the rubbish.
“The newspaper was under the carpet and more or less the whole paper was just stuck to the bottom of it.
"When I delivered the paper to her I could see that she was moved and she was really appreciated it.
“We find stuff all the time behind walls and even family heirlooms people have forgotten about. It’s just sad to see.”
