WORTHY GRAND FINALE

Terminally ill Cindy Mackenzie feared she might never see the last instalment of her beloved Downton Abbey... until kind-hearted cast members learned of daughter Michelle's urgent wish to honour her mother's bucket list

- By Lesley O'Toole

DOWNTON Abbey fans have just a few more days to wait to see The Grand Finale, the eagerly anticipated third and final film in Julian Fellowes's much-loved franchise. But, as the Sunday Express can reveal today, one superfan received her own unofficial premiere in June - just days before she died of ovarian cancer.

Grandmother of two and beauty training academies owner Cindy Mackenzie, 67, spent the last few months of her life at St Andrew's Hospice in Airdrie after her Stage 4 diagnosis in August 2024.

After creating a bucket list, she enjoyed a birthday party attended by 100 people, a trip to Gleneagles, and a wedding blessing for her son, Bruce, and his fiancee, Kirsty.

But the Downton devotee became too ill to fulfil one of her dearest wishes - a visit to Highclere Castle, the Hampshire stately home that doubles for Downton Abbey.

And that wasn't the only source of her sadness. “She had just watched all six TV seasons for the seventh time,” explains her daughter and author Michelle, 45.

“She was distraught she wouldn’t see the new film because she didn’t think she would live long enough.”

Knowing the film’s release wasn’t until September 12, Michelle felt she had to act.

“In May I decided to post on X and asked if any cast member saw my message, would they mind sending a kind word her way?” she says. “To be honest, that was the very most we were hoping for.”

To her shock but utter delight, two cast members (who have asked not to be identified) sent personalised videos and an audio message to Cindy, who was born in the US but moved to Scotland with her Scottish mother when she was 15.