Dreams come true for care home residents, 88, as they take to the skies

  • Video report by ITV Meridian reporter Kerry Swain


Two residents with dementia at a care home in Hampshire had their dreams come true when they got to take the skies at the age of 88.

Clive and Tony live at the Woodley Grange care home in Romsey, where staff launched a wish campaign, in which they promised to make a dream come true for every resident.

Their surprise trip to Popham Airfield near Basingstoke was their first outing from their care home since before the pandemic 18 months ago.

Clive's dream was to fly like his son in the RAF.

Tony worked with Spitfires as RAF ground crew in Gibraltar in the 1950s.


Pilot Simon Hughes answered an appeal on social media and offered to take the men up in his plane.

His day job is a doctor with Hampshire and Isle of Wight air ambulance and a consultant at Southampton General Hospital.


It's been widely documented how hard life has been for the residents of care homes during the pandemic and the amazing efforts of the staff who looked after elderly people during lockdown and the wishes granted are evidence of exactly that.