MARGARET Parkin was devastated when her supply of fig jam dried up - but thanks to an Otley trader's international connections she now has plenty to put on her toast.

Mrs Parkin, who developed a taste for the jam while on holiday in Romania, was overjoyed when she discovered Patisserie Viennoise in Otley stocked the jam.

But her joy turned to dismay when the jam ran out - because the supplier had decided to stop making it.

Luckily, shop owner Trevor Backhouse took her passion to heart. He put in a call to Wolfgang Burg, in France, the father of Isabelle, his shop's star cake decorator, and got some figs brought over and made up his own batch.

He said: "Isabelle phoned her father in France, who was just coming over for a visit, and he brought over 5 kilos of figs with him. We had a real jam making session while he was here."

Mrs Parkin, of Pearsons Buildings, Otley, said she was very grateful and looking forward to toast and fig jam once again.

She said: "I acquired the taste for fig jam during a holiday to Romania a few years ago. I found that Patisserie Viennoise supplied an English version that was just to my taste, but was dismayed when I learned that not only did Patisserie Viennoise have no supplies, neither did anyone else."

But she added that was not the end of the story. "On Saturday, we collected two jars of fig jam made personally by Trevor and served with his inimitable smile - 'I was not going to be beaten,' he told me.

"Where else would you get service like that?"

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