A MALVERN family enjoyed the experience of a lifetime when they took their front row seats for the Golden Jubilee celebrations at Buckingham Palace.

David and Jane Brierley took their daughter Kate and son-in-law Tim Wildman to London after winning four tickets in a Malvern Gazette competition.

Mrs Brierley said: "It really was a once in a lifetime thing. We wouldn't have risked missing it for anything and Kate and Tim enjoyed it just as much."

She said that most of the million visitors to The Mall over the weekend were standing for five or six hours at a time. "I couldn't have done that," she said.

Luckily the Malvern Link family had seats on a raised platform about 100 yards from the Palace and 50 yards from Victoria's statue, where the Queen lit the rockets to fire Monday's beacon.

"I met the Queen in 1957 for a world Guide camp in the grounds of Windsor Castle," Mrs Brierley said, "She has changed since then but not noticeably. She looks good. She changed into a red outfit for the afternoon session on Tuesday and she really looked wonderful. We saw her in four different outfits over the two days and wondered how she managed it."

The Brierley's coveted seats meant they had a ringside view of the special pop concert, parades of carnival costumes, vintage cars, the Queen in her golden carriage, gold-painted London buses, an air display with Concorde and the Red Arrows, ancient fire engines and Commonwealth representatives in national costume.

"The pop concert was amazing", she said. "And the fireworks. I have never seen anything like it.

"We have seen three American Independence Day fireworks (in America) which were good but nothing like this. They were going from three places at once, all co-ordinated with music.

"The exciting bit was getting back to the hotel. They said there were a million people there and we had to get to the tube but St James' Park station was closed because it was so busy and it would have been dangerous going down the stairs."

Additionally the family enjoyed tours around the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Westminster Abbey and a Thames cruise to Greenwich.

"On the whole it was absolutely fantastic," Mrs Brierley said. "We are waiting for the 60th anniversary now."