A young woman’s birthday treat became extra-special when she was taken to the stage door of New Victoria Theatre for a surprise encounter.

Ellie Baum-Cornell was thrilled to meet one of the Woking pantomime stars, a celebrity she has been a fan of for many years.

She had just enjoyed watching Faye Tozer play the evil aunt Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty on an outing to celebrate her 19th birthday.

Faye, the multi-talented singer and actor, arrived in the stage door office after the performance for a chat with her superfan from Pirbright.

“I had no idea that I would be meeting Faye,” said Ellie. “The panto was amazing and then I got to see someone who is very special to me.”

The surprise was the idea of Ellie’s personal assistant, Kayley Sands from the Big Sister Support Agency. It was set up by Kayley’s uncle, local journalist Rob Searle, through Ambassadors Woking communications manager Sam Miller.

“I knew Ellie was a huge fan of Faye and would really enjoy seeing her in the panto,” said Kayley. “I got tickets for Sleeping Beauty as a birthday present and thought it would be great for Ellie to meet her.”

Ellie, who lives in Pirbright with parents Kris and Emily, said: “Faye was such a lovely person, really smiley. She’s just a lovely woman in general.”

Faye came to fame as a member of Steps, the UK’s most-successful male and female pop group. She has combined a pop career with theatre work and parts in musical productions, her first panto part was as a six-year-old dancer.

Ellie has been a Steps fan since 2012 and has seen them perform live three times. She had one question for Faye – will the band be touring again?

The answer was “yes”, within the next two years.