This is real news, my friends.

Patricia Nomalungelo Sowazi of Butlers Pizza recently made her millionth pizza for the company since joining in 1990, and to celebrate, she traveled thousands of miles to meet Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, at the Olympics.

Having worked six shifts a week for more than two decades, she has baked enough pizzas, placed one after the other to reach from Earth to the International Space Station. Or in different terms, to span the distance between London and Brussels across the English Channel. That’s a distance of more than 300 kilometres!

A passionate and hard working woman from Khayelitsha who has never ventured out of South Africa – or even set foot on an aeroplane until now – her journey to London to make a pizza for a Miles for Smiles charity event and experience the Olympic city has become an inspiration to all.

Lady Pat met Mayor Boris Johnson at London’s City Hall with a Makaraba as a special thank you for hosting her on her trip, and invited him to Cape Town, the World Design Capital for 2014, to enjoy one of her fabulous designer pizzas at her home in Khayelitsha.

The Mayor was delighted to receive her, welcomed her warmly to London, congratulated her on her amazing pizza feat, and was enchanted by the designer makaraba she gifted him as a special thank you for hosting her. Having visited Cape Town during the 2010 Soccer World Cup, he expressed his admiration for the beauty of the city and received Lady Pat’s invitation to visit her for a designer pizza with grace and characteristic good English humour.

And judging by the photograph, who better than Lady Pat smiling from cheek to cheek to meet the Mayor. A journey of hers that began with a single step, almost 22 years ago, has now turned her dreams into reality.

Throughout her UK visit she has been extending similar invitations to all the people she has met, encouraging them to visit Cape Town in 2014.  Adding her own personal touch, her invitation comes with a warm offer to enjoy a pizza with her at her home in Khayelitsha, to be baked specially by Lady Pat when they arrive.

[Thanks, BCB!]