“He has made my day,” the Hardy fan enthused, who, instead of flowers, received a life-size cardboard cut-out of the Venom star from a friend.
The grandmother-of-three told BBC Coventry and Warwickshire: “He put me on a pedestal for a day and that’s all I can ask for.”
She added: “I’m so excited, he spoke to me as if he’s a friend. I’m such a big fan of his, I’ve watched all his movies and boxsets especially during lockdown.”
Shaw expressed that she “loved him to bits”, while Hardy reportedly returned the compliment by telling the fan that she was a “very popular lady”.
The hospice care facility confirmed on Facebook that Shaw had spoken to her idol, writing: “We’ve been blown away by Tom’s kindness and support too.”
“Jo-Anne and her family cannot thank you enough for making this happen.”
Additionally, Hardy is a very keen Jiu-Jitsu fighter and shocked residents of Milton Keynes earlier in the year by showing up at a local school to participate in the 2022 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Open Championship, where he won a gold medal.
Sean Rosborough, one of the event’s sponsors, said the organisers were aware a few weeks before that Hardy would be participating, but kept the star’s surprise appearance “to themselves” to ensure that crowds of people wouldn’t “distract” him from doing his best in the competition.
Rosborough praised the Dunkirk actor, saying that Hardy was “brilliant” with fans who asked to get photographs with him, adding that the mums at the competition were “all over him”.
The sponsor told SWNS: “A lot of people were asking for photos, and coming up to him, and he had no problem with that all. The mums were all over him. It didn’t bother him.
“And when he was fighting, he was focused on what he was doing. He’s amazing at Jiu-Jitsu.”
