Mate drops out of holiday, gets replaced by person with same name from Facebook

If your mate dropped out of your lads’ holiday, you’d probably take the hit and forfeit his booking. The friends of Joe McGrath, though, had other ideas.

Rather than let his ticket go to waste, the group found another Joe McGrath on Facebook – and despite being a complete stranger, invited him away to Majorca with them.

Joe, who accepted the invitation, posted the story on Twitter – claiming they’re all “best mates” after the three-day trip.

The invitation came about when the group, from Bristol, contacted Joe from Manchester to find out if he’d be interested in an all-inclusive holiday to Majorca as their mate, the original Joe McGrath, had been forced to cancel.

The message read: “Hi Joe, would you consider coming on a holiday with a group of nine strangers if they had already arranged flights for you and an all inclusive hotel?” Joe, obviously, said yes.

Speaking since returning, Joe said he hadn’t slept in four days. He said: “A guy called Dan (who I have never met before) messaged me out of the blue to tell me that his friend ‘Joe McGrath’ couldn’t go away on a trip that they had already booked, Dan asked If I could take his place.

“Although I had my doubts if the offer was legit, I decided to take the plunge as my legendary boss gave me the time off work.

“I drove down to Bristol on Saturday night and had a mad three days with complete strangers that I think I can call my good friends.

“What a mega group of people! I loved every minute of it. I want to apologise to my mum who thought I knew these people all along.”