BEFORE hitting 50 next year, former SNJ news editor Sandra Ashenford has compiled a bucket list of 50 goals to achieve before her birthday.

The aim is to do one every week.

List item no 25 - meet radio and television presenter Chris Evans I HAVE to confess, I haven’t actually met Chris Evans but then I’ve been almost but not quite meeting him for the past 20 years.

The first time our paths failed to cross was in early 1995 when I appeared as a guest on The Big Breakfast, the show where Chris Evans shot to television stardom.

I had a lovely chat with Gaby Roslin about the difficulties of being pregnant while living in a canalside house with no vehicle access.

Chris Evans, however, had left the show a few weeks before.

As the years passed, I followed the ups and downs of his career and, as we are very close in age, I felt like we grew up together.

On many occasions, at the various motoring events my spouse was always dragging me along to, he would point out Chris Evans standing just a few feet away.

I might have thought of us as contemporaries but I never had the nerve to go and say hello.

Our most recent close encounter was about 18 months ago, at the Hay Book Festival.

I am one of the preliminary judges for BBC Radio 2’s 500 words story competition for children, and I was lucky enough to be invited to the event where the winners were announced.

The Radio 2 Breakfast Show was being broadcast live from the festival and Chris Evans was literally within touching distance.

You’ll be pleased to know I kept my hands to myself.

I really did think I might get round to meeting him this year; my original plan was to stalk him on Twitter but I still haven’t actually signed up for a Twitter account, so that plan was a no-go.

Then, when I was on BBC Radio Gloucestershire a few weeks ago, I did mention that meeting Chris Evans was on my list, in the hope that they might put in a word for me.

If they did, it obviously fell on deaf ears.

So Chris, if you are reading this, I loved you on the Breakfast Show, and I’m sure we would get on really well.

If only we could get round to saying hello.