It took 243 days of stalking, camping out overnight, travelling the length and breadth of the country – but finally Take That fanatic Atty Hussein got her man.

Atty and her “Thatter” girl fans have been on a mission to get Gary Barlow to make an appearance for her 40th birthday.

And on Friday night the boy band frontman made her dreams come true when he turned up at the Gillingham mum’s lavish milestone bash to serenade her.

Scroll down for audio

It all started in March this year when the megastar Tweeted: “If you have a milestone birthday this year start your campaign now, 21,30,40,60, 110! I’ll come and sing at your party.”

That was that – and her #GetGarytoAttys40th campaign was launched on Twitter.

Atty, a retail director, said: “We basically bombarded him. I’m sure he would look up and see us in the audience and think ‘not them again’.”

Atty and her five girlfriends wore distinctive superhero orange and purple capes to stand out in the crowd at anywhere Barlow was making an appearance.

But Atty’s hopes were shattered when he sent her a message two days before her party at Oakwood House Hotel in Maidstone, apologising to say he had to go to Germany.

Speaking at her mum’s home in Franklin Road, Gillingham, she said: “I had always said I didn’t want to know until the last minute so we could keep the campaign alive right until the end. It had become part of our lives.

“But I had been organising this party since October last year and invited 200 people. I wanted it to be like a wedding without getting married.”

Unbeknown to Atty, Barlow’s text was a decoy and her mates were in on the secret that he would be coming.

In the evening Atty was in her hotel room freshening up her make-up when her friend knocked on her door asking her to join guests on the dance floor.

“There was Gary walking towards me. He gave me a cuddle and said I was the craziest woman he had ever met" - Atty Hussein

She said: “All of a sudden there was a lot of screaming and it just went mental.

“There was Gary walking towards me. He gave me a cuddle and said I was the craziest woman he had ever met.”

Atty has been a Take That fan since she was 14 and saw them performing in the very early days at an under-18s nightclub.

Since then she has lost count of the money she has spent pursuing her idols and the number of times she has seen them.

Last year alone, when they went on tour, she went to 21 of their 37 gigs and would have gone to them all had it not been for work commitments.

She said: “It doesn’t matter how many times I see them there’s always something different. It’s like returning to my teenage years. I still get the rush of adrenalin.”