One of the UK’s leading advertising executives has thanked staff at the Grange Hospital and the Parkway Hotel, volunteers at the Llanfrechfa Grange Walled Garden, and praised the food from Valentines Coffee Shop and Cafe at the town’s train station.
Rory Sutherland is the vice chairman of the Ogilvy & Mather group, regularly features on TV and radio, and writes a column for The Spectator magazine. A few Cwmbran Life readers sent me a link to a media interview where he said he recommends Wales as a holiday destination as it’s “full of pleasant surprises”.
During the clip he says: “I went into the cafe in Cwmbran station which doesn’t look anything special. The guy there who’s Turkish-Welsh. He’s basically like the god of panini-making. It was just an extraordinarily good panini coming from this tiny little station in Cwmbran. And it’s those little pleasant surprises which I think are what make us really happy.”
I contacted Rory and asked him why he had visited Cwmbran?
He told me: “A rather sad reason. My 93-year-old father was dying (peacefully) in The Grange Hospital (which, by the way, was absolutely excellent). My daughter lives in Manchester so there were several trips to pick her up and drop her off at Cwmbran Station. It was then that we discovered the Valentines’ Coffee Shop and Cafe. The owner is the Paganini of Panini.
“On a sincere note, I would like to thank everyone in Cwmbran who helped to make our stay particularly memorable. Not only the superb café and the magnificent staff at the hospital, but also everyone at The Parkway Hotel and the volunteers of the Llanfrechfa Grange Walled Garden which provided such a welcome sanctuary and place of solace next to the hospital.
“It was, as far as circumstances allowed, a wonderful stay. I am truly grateful to the town. Nice KFC too.”