12:07pm Thursday 31st July 2008
EIGHT is a significant number for Sarah Soley, who shares her birthday with Princess Beatrice and turns twenty-eight on 8.8.2008.
The coincidence of numbers isn’t quite as impressive as the combination when she turned eight, and the date read 8.8.1988.
But she is still very much in the mood for celebration.
She said: “Eight is certainly my lucky number, and it featured when I won £150 on bingo last year. I’ve also had Lottery wins of £10, when eight was one of the numbers.
“And when I’m asked to think of a number, it’s always eight.”
More remarkably, when Miss Soley was born she weighed 8lb exactly.
Princess Beatrice, the fifth in line to the throne, was reported to be working as a sales clerk at Selfridges in London, this summer.
Miss Soley enjoys a career with Pertemps in Hereford, where she helps disabled people to get back into the work place.
She has lived in Ledbury for five years, but grew up in Malvern, where her parents still live.
Miss Soley said: “My mom and dad get very excited about my birth date. They just love it.”
It was Denise and Nigel Soley who contacted the Malvern Gazette, twenty years ago, when Sarah turned eight.
Mr Soley said: “It’s easy to remember our daughter’s birthday and the number eight does crop up a great deal in her life.”
Now the Soleys are planning a family day out to Tenby - where Sarah was taken to mark her eighth birthday.
The family have some good reasons to suspect that eight is a lucky number.
Buddha preached the wisdom of a noble eightfold path.
In Islam, eight angels are said to carry the throne of God.
In Hinduism it is the number of wealth and abundance.
In Christianity it is the number of Beatitudes preached by Christ - something that perhaps finds an echo in the name of Princess Beatrice.
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