KDRTV News – Nairobi: A British woman who traded her comfortable marriage and children for a goodly love story in Kenya is now filled with regret, feeling she was used as a “meal ticket” by the man she fell for.
Cheryl Thomasgood, 65, from the Isle of Wight in the UK, fell madly in love with Daniel Lekimencho, a 6-foot-2 Maasai warrior ten years her junior, while holidaying in Bamburi Beach, Mombasa.
At the time, she was 34, married to her second husband, Mike Mason, and a mother of three children.
But within weeks of meeting Lekimencho a young warrior who performed traditional Maasai ceremonies for tourists Cheryl walked away from her marriage and children and followed him back to Kenya.
Trading her comfortable lifestyle for a manyatta hut made of mud and sticks, Cheryl lived a dramatic life alongside Lekimencho drinking cow’s blood, eating cabbage, and participating in a rich and ancient culture.
The couple fell in love quickly and made headlines across the world in 1995 when they married in the UK wearing traditional Maasai attire.
For a while, the marriage seemed filled with hope. They even had a daughter, Mitsi. But soon, things fell apart.
Once in the UK, Lekimencho seemed less interested in spirituality and more obsessed with material possessions a bigger home, designer gear, and sending cash back to Kenya.
His growing dissatisfaction led to arguments and a dramatic split in 1999, just a few years after their marriage.
Today, nearly 30 years later, Cheryl lives a solitary life in Somerset, reflecting on the choices that turned her world upside down.
She admits she made a huge mistake by chasing a dream that seemed romantic and pure, but was in reality an illusion.
“I was a meal ticket. I fell for a man I barely knew and walked away from everything including, my marriage, my children, my future – for a love that was destined to fade.”
Her story stands as a powerful warning to all: sometimes the promises of a new life can mask a painful reality.
