A year ago a haulage boss from Larkfield began planning a low-key visit to Nepal hoping to outline his campaign to allow retired Gurkhas to settle in the UK.
This week, and with the campaign won, Peter Carroll, who owns Seymour Transport, and actress Joanna Lumley brought Nepal to a standstill.
Thousands of retired Gurkha soldiers and their families gave them a heroes’ welcome.
Miss Lumley has been hailed “Goddess of Nepal,” the duo have been almost mobbed by joyous crowds at several public appearances and pictures of both of them line Nepalese cities and remote villages.
They have also met the Nepalese president and prime minister, while schools and public buildings have closed as people deserted their jobs, desperate to meet the party.
Mr Carroll, who is the Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate for Maidstone and the Weald, began campaigning in 2003 to overturn the government’s policy which stopped Gurkhas who retired before 1997 from settling in the UK.

He said: “If you put all this down in a novel, people wouldn’t believe it had happened.”

• For the full story, see the Kent Messenger.