Terminally ill Coldplay super fan gifted VIP tickets says it's "dream come true"
A terminally ill Coldplay super fan whose dying wish was to see Coldplay live for the last time says being gifted VIP tickets for one of their four sold out gigs in Croke Park this weekend is "a dream come true."
Brenda Courell ( 54) from Mornington who is battling terminal metastatic breast cancer says she is looking forward to ticking off the number one thing on her bucket list after Coldplay’s team reached out to her offering the once in a life time opportunity to experience seeing the iconic band VIP style.
Brenda who is “keeping everything crossed” that she may get the chance to meet "hero" Chris Martin in the flesh admits that it could all been a very different story had she not checked her spam email folder by chance in recent days and found the astonishing invite!
The Mornington mum of one who has beaten the odds after been given just three years to live in 2021 says getting to see one of the band’s three sold out shows itself is a wish fulfilled but getting invited by the Coldplay team is "beyond her wildest dreams.”
“I just can’t believe it, ” said Brenda.
“I’m just waiting for someone to wake me up and tell me I’m dreaming,” she added.
Brenda had been successful in getting tickets for Friday night’s show but is now looking forward to rocking two night’s of the band’s four sold out Dublin shows.
"I put a post on the Drogheda Dolls Facebook page last year appealing for tickets as the show was completely sold out and through an amazing woman Wendy Jameson from Duleek , I was gifted two tickets for the Friday night in memory of her brother who had just died the month before from cancer,” said Brenda.
“It was after this that I got word that Coldplay’s PR team wanted to get in touch with me so for months I was checking my email but nothing came in so I just thought that they must have forgotten about me,” she added.
"But one day last week I happened to check my spam and there was the email with an invite for two VIP tickets for any of the nights!
"I got myself into an awful state thinking it was too late and straight away someone got back to me and said no, the tickets are yours for any night so I am bringing my son killian and we are looking forward to having the night of our lives!”
Brenda says she is unsure what to expect from being a VIP guest but is hopeful that she might even meet the band members.
"It seem to be top secret,” says the Coldplay mega fan.
"The email I got from them says that 'you have been invited by Coldplay to be on the guest list for Sunday and you will get further instructions no later than the morning of the concert telling you exactly where to go,’ she added.
"If I do get to meet Chris Martin I will tell him how much the words of his songs and his voice have helped me through so much.
"This is my second time having cancer and ten years ago when I was diagnosed with my first breast cancer I was really sick at the time with sepsis in hospital and Coldplay just released their album "A Head Full of Dreams" and I remember downloading it to my phone and those songs got me through so many hard times."
It’s not Brenda’s first time to see the rock group live. The Mornington woman was also previously on the receiving end of the kindness of a stranger who gave her the chance to see Coldplay in Glasgow in 2021 as the mum of one explains.
“Via a post I had about my bucket list on social media a girl called Claire O'Sullivan private messaged me and said I have two tickets for Coldplay in Hampden Park.
"She said I want to bring you with me and I want to gift you the whole trip. I met her for the first time at 4am outside Dublin Airport and we instantly clicked!
"I danced and sang for two-and-a-half hours; I left my heart and my voice in Hampden Park. It was just the most amazing experience of my life.”
Brave Brenda was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, courageously beating the deadly disease but in 2021 she got the devastating news that the illness had returned and had spread to her sternum and lung and this time sadly was incurable. However recent scans have offered more positive news according to Brenda who said:
"At a recent scan one of the tumours on my right lung had shrunk and at my last scan, the most dangerous tumour in my sternum bone had shrunk as well which is amazing.
" Now that I possibly have more time on this earth, I just want every second possible with my son, he is just my rock. I’m just so grateful, it’s a miracle."