Mother finds daughter’s message of hope in UK

A local mother’s trip to visit her son in the United Kingdom turned into an unexpected full-circle moment when she discovered a handwritten message of hope — left by her own daughter three years earlier — on a bathroom door in Birmingham. Mandy Tyrer (58) was visiting her son, Jarryd Nurden (35), a musical theatre actor based in the UK, who is in remission from carcinoid lung cancer after undergoing five operations to remove a tumour from his left lung and part of it. Tyrer said she travelled to the UK for 10 days to visit her son, whom she had last seen lying in a hospital bed.

Nurden was performing in a Christmas pantomime — something Tyrer was determined to see. She shared how discovering the note gave her renewed hope after arriving in the UK and having to navigate unfamiliar train lines while hauling a heavy suitcase, without mobile network coverage, an eSIM or any recognisable landmarks in sight. Relying on directions given to her “with motherly trust”, Tyrer said she eventually found a small shop where strangers helped her get connected.

From there, she made her way to the Hippodrome Theatre, where her son was performing. Tired, proud and deeply grateful, she said she had already accomplished what she had set out to do.The following day, after her SIM card stopped working and she retraced her steps to resolve the issue, Tyrer found herself needing to use a bathroom. I needed to use the loo, and it was so strange — I crossed the road to the Bullring shopping centre, which was already bustling with a Saturday crowd.

[paywall]

“Signs pointed in every direction, people rushed past speaking languages I didn’t recognise, and after a brief moment of uncertainty, I chose a staircase, joined a queue and slipped into the first available cubicle,” she said. “That’s when I saw it — a small yellow sticky note on the back of the door with a simple handwritten message: ‘Be proud of how far you’ve come.’” Tyrer said the moment felt deeply personal. “After everything I had been through, it made me realise just how much we’ve endured as a family,” she said. She added that it took her a few minutes to recognise the handwriting and how closely it resembled her daughter’s.

[/paywall]