Workington couple attend Buckingham Palace for King's garden party

Les and Margaret Ray from Workington attended the special garden party at Buckingham Palace, for the first of the three royal garden parties that will be hosted by King Charles in 2024.

The couple attended alongside around 8,000 people who were invited to the event to thank them for their service to communities, charities, the military, and other organisations, at the event hosted by King Charles and the Queen Consort Camilla.

Speaking about what it was like to be invited, Les said: "We were amazed at first, wondering how and why, we were quite taken a back and then of course when it sunk in we were really pleased about it.

The couple managed to snap a picture of the King during the event. (Image: Supplied)

"It's hard to explain just exactly how you feel, you have never been before and you don't know what it entails, but we were quite amazed."

Les and Margaret have been fundraisers for a number of different organisations throughout her life, with Margaret running a group for elderly people in the town taking them on trips and hosting Christmas lunches as well as many different events for the elderly in their area.

Talking about the day, Les said: "It was absolutely out of this world, to see all the different people of different nations and watching what was going on, and how people themselves were reacting it was really amazing.

A picture taken by Les of the palace grounds. (Image: Supplied)

"We went for a walk around the grounds, we were as near as we could possibly get (to Charles and Camilla) but we also went down by the lake and around the grounds just to see how big it really was, there was people sitting on the grass soaking the sun up, just quite relaxed just watching how the different people were taking to the occasion.

"We would like to say a big thank you to the strangers we met, who then became friends and made it the most spectacular day which we will treasure for the rest of our lives."