Ms Wilson added: “It’s only since the last couple of years when they’re doing the 60th anniversary of the boycott and things like that that I’ve gotten more and more involved.
“I’ve learnt a lot over the last three years”, she said. “He [Mr Reid-Bailey] says he didn’t come to England to do all these things – he just fell into them.
“When he saw there was something that needed to be tackled, he tackled it.”
Mr Wilson said he told his uncle he was throwing a 25th anniversary party for his firm to make sure the 80th birthday party was a true surprise.
“I’m very, very proud of him,” he said.
“It’s on the people such as Guy Bailey, Paul Stevenson – it’s on their shoulders that we stand.”