Sharon Gets Her Band

The hug 2DEC23

hen we first heard that Sharon Felton had launched a campaign to meet her idols, Take That, we thought it might be tongue-in-cheek.

But then, we should have known from young Felton’s many charity events over the years, this lady doesn’t do anything by halves.

And so it was that, on Friday night, Take That had the honour of meeting their no.1 Irish fan when the twain did meet on a recording of The Late Late Show.

Sporting a t-shirt that read ‘No Chemo Today: Take That Are My Medicine’, Sharon was there with seven of her friends, who had travelled to the RTE show in a limo after their campaign took a hold over the past few weeks.

It was that very t-shirt that drew Mark and Howard from their interview with Patrick Kielty, slow dancing with the Greystones mum. “It was just amazing,” Felton told local hack Tom Galvin of The Wicklow Mick, “and there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.”

When Take That’s interview was done, Mark came back down to Sharon.

“He was the nicest person in the world; he was so kind, and he was caring. He was hugging me, and asked me how I was doing.

“Then Howard came down as well, and he gave me a big hug, and just said, ‘You’re amazing. How are you?’, before adding, ‘I hope you’re doing well‘.

“They were just so kind and they didn’t need to do that. There were a couple of hundred more Take That fans in the place.”

That the band’s unofficial leader, Gary Barlow, had been liking social media posts about the Greystones woman’s mission to meet the band on The Late Late Show let Sharon know that they knew what her campaign was all about.

With 14 rounds of chemotherapy now behind her, having been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, Sharon has one more treatment before Christmas and what she hopes will be her last in January.

“This type of chemo is tough on the body,” she says. “Then I’ll have surgery and radiation in the new year, and hopefully, I’ll be at Take That when they play Dublin in April.

“But it’s not easy. I am sharing my journey for people to be aware, all the time…”