BRITAIN’S number one royal watcher is ready to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee after following Her Majesty for more than 35 years.
Julia McCarthy-Fox, 57, has slept on pavements dozens of times to be front of the queue to see her idol, often taking her mother and her son Zachary along too.
Julia, from Horsham, has travelled to every corner of the country and been around the world to take photos and meet the Queen.
And though she now lives in New Zealand, she is flying over for the occasion.
Julia has planned a jam-packed schedule in hopes of catching another glimpse of her favourite royal.
She said: “Because it’s something that has never happened before, it’s always interesting to experience and realistically it isn’t going to happen again in any person’s lifetime.
“No other monarch will be able to reign for 70 years in the lifetime of anyone who is alive now, so it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Julia will be travelling to London today with her wife Kathy and they will stay until Thursday so they can be in the capital for the main events.
She said: “I’m not sure if she’ll be out but I’m happy to sleep on the pavement if necessary."
The pair will be heading to Trooping the Colour on Thursday and will watch the procession.
She said: “We’ll get out behind the barriers of the palace and watch the family on the balcony if we possibly can.
“There will be the beacon lighting in the evening, presumably the Prince of Wales will light it in the absence of the Queen, so if we can find out when and where we’ll go to that."
On Friday, they will attend the Thanksgiving Service at St Paul’s Cathedral.
“It should have a huge turnout of royals so I’ll go to stand outside and see people arriving but it’s nice to take pictures there. We may be able to see her in the car,” she said.
“We’ve got tickets to the Derby on the Saturday, that’s normally a really good place to see the Queen because she comes down into the paddocks before the main race but I suspect the only place we’ll see her is the balcony.
“There’s the pageant on the Sunday, which will have the gold coach and I would really like to see that again so I probably will go back up there again.”
Julia said it was a shame the Queen’s mobility is likely to mean she cannot attend some of the events taking place.
She said: “I think it’s phenomenal really to be Queen for that long. It’s an amazing thing to witness and I feel very privileged to have seen so much of it first hand.
“I’ve done half of it, which is a very long time to me, but for the Queen it’s only half of her reign.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here