How I beat Michelle Mone back to Scotland thanks to a volcano – Hayley Matthews

Feeling a little bit abandoned in London after modelling for Michelle Mone’s new collection, Hayley Matthews snuck upon a sleeper train as the bra tycoon languished in an airport lounge.

Hayley Matthews sneaked aboard a sleeper train in London rather than spend the night in Birmingham train station

TEN years ago this week we had chaos due to an ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Iceland. I was in London after being picked by Michelle Mone to model for her “Real Woman” clothing campaign. I was excited – what an opportunity. I wore a black satin dress, had my hair and make-up done by someone who’d just done Katy Perry’s the day before and was being photographed for the national press. However, that isn’t the most exciting part of my story. No, the most exciting, part started on my journey home. We’d all been given our train tickets but I was the only one heading back to Edinburgh, the rest were off to get the Glasgow train and team Mone were flying back.

As I sat in London Euston working out the train times I realised that I was heading to Birmingham which was getting in at 1am and my connecting train to Edinburgh wasn’t due until 7:45am! Nearly seven hours overnight on my own in a train station – no thanks! I called Michelles PA who offered the advice “just get your head down on a bench for a few hours”. She said she’d done it loads of times.

I begged them to put me on a plane or even the sleeper but it was too late to change anything and they were busy trying to get home themselves as they were stuck at the airport due to the ash cloud – albeit in the executive lounge. It’s a hard life. I got the impression that I wasn’t their priority.

So in a blind panic I considered sneaking on the Caledonian Sleeper. It was about to leave in two minutes so I ran to it. Everybody was getting their tickets checked but I snuck in a door and the inspector didn’t notice. My adrenaline was pumping and the train was packed!

The carriageways were full of kids crying, sleeping on their parents’ knees, people standing over each other, sitting on the floor. The carriage was carnage!

I ran down the corridors trying all the door handles hoping a bedroom would be free but what were the chances? Well, bingo – my luck was in! In I went closed the door and shut my eyes. If you can’t see them, they can’t see you – right?

I thought all was well then a man came in, arghh – I started, but then he said sorry wrong room and left. Then a knock at the door. Oh God I’d been caught, but no. It was just a lady coming to ask if I’d prefer tea or coffee in the morning. I don’t know who was watching down on me that night but the powers that be were definitely at work as I had a good five-hour kip and slept off the stress headache that had accumulated from a very intense few hours. I arrived in Edinburgh at the back of six in the morning and walked off the train genuinely thanking the staff and that wee choo choo for getting me up the road. I skipped up the Waverley Steps with a gratitude that I’ll never be able to describe. Went home, made a strong cup of tea and think I even had a cigarette.

The irony was that Michelle and her team didn’t get home until much later that day because their flight was grounded. I did get to keep the black tight satin dress but looked like an overweight seal with it on, so decided to take it back to the shop and swapped it for some perfume – but best not to tell anyone that.

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