A woman in Lincolnshire has had her application for her dream job as a stunt rider returned 48 years after applying for the role.

Tizi Hodson, 70, from Gedney Hill, opened the post to find a letter she had sent applying for to be a motorcycle stunt rider in January 1976, with a note explaining it had been stuck behind a post office drawer ever since.

“I always wondered why I never heard back about the job. Now I know why,” she told the BBC. “How they found me when I’ve moved house 50-odd times, and even moved countries four or five times, is a mystery.”

Despite never hearing back about her dream job, she went on to have a successful career as an aerobatic pilot and flying instructor.

She did not know who returned the letter. It was posted with an anonymous handwritten note stating: “Late delivery by Staines Post Office. Found behind a draw [sic]. Only about 50 years late.”

“It means so much to me to get it back all this time later,” she said. “I remember very clearly sitting in my flat in London typing the letter.

“Every day I looked for my post but there was nothing there and I was so disappointed because I really, really wanted to be a stunt rider on a motorcycle.”

Hodson said she had carefully refrained from referring to her gender in the application, as she believed she may not get an interview if they knew she was female.

“I even stupidly told them I didn’t mind how many bones I might break as I was used to it,” she said. “If I could speak to my younger self, I would tell her to go and do everything I’ve done. I’ve had such a wonderful time in life, even if I have broken a few bones.”