Jayne Twiddle of confidentladies.co.uk to attend fundraising Twitter party at No 10 Downing St (From York Press)

Jayne Twiddle of confidentladies.co.uk to attend fundraising Twitter party at No 10 Downing St

9:32am Friday 4th December 2009 in

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A MOTHER-OF-THREE from York was today meeting the Prime Minister’s wife after being invited to a Christmas party at Number 10 Downing Street.

Jayne Twiddle said she could not believe it when the invitation came through the letter box of her Strensall home.

She said she had attracted the attention of Sarah Brown on the internet networking site Twitter, which she used to promote her new business, Confident Ladies – a group aimed at helping York women get back on their feet after suffering knock-backs in life.

Jayne, 40, who has survived a marriage break-up, redundancy and losing her father to cancer, said: “About a month ago Sarah Brown started following me on Twitter. She said she thought Confident Ladies was a great idea and it was amazing what women could achieve when they got together.

“Then two weeks ago I got a message from her asking for my full name and address because she wanted to send me something.

“I was absolutely flabbergasted when it turned out to be an invitation to this party.”

Jayne, a former property manager for Hunters Estate Agent, said: “I’m just a normal woman and now I’m off to Downing Street – it’s just mad.”

She said the event, which was called A Downing “Tweet” Christmas Party, was in support of A Million Mums – a campaign that aims to prevent mothers dying in childbirth.

Jayne said: “When my youngest daughter was born she was really poorly and had to go into special care. I had to have a blood transfusion and we were both in a real mess.

“If I had given birth in a developing country we wouldn’t be here today, so this campaign is something I support.”

Jayne, whose week began with an audition to appear on BBC’s Weakest Link show, said: “It’s been an unbelievable week.

“The audition was really fun. As well as doing a mock round of the show and a general knowledge quiz, I had to stand in front of a camera while they slated me to see how I would react.

“They said things like, ‘you didn’t you make much of an effort today did you?’, so I tried to stand my own ground and replied, ‘well, you didn’t give a dress code’.”

For information about Confident Ladies, log on to confidentladies.co.uk