Tizi Hodson from Gedney Hill in Lincolnshire, opened the post recently to discover her original letter applying for a job as a motorcycle stunt rider, sent in January 1976, had been stuck behind a post office drawer all these years, the BBC said.

Describing the letter returned to the BBC as being “amazing”, Hodson said: “I always wondered why I never heard back about the job. Now I know why.”

At the top of the letter was a handwritten note that read: “Late delivery by Staines Post Office. Found behind a draw [sic]. Only about 50 years late,” the BBC reported.

Hodson told the BBC that she didn’t know who returned the letter, or how it even found its way to her.

“How they found me when I’ve moved house 50-odd times, and even moved countries four or five times, is a mystery,” she said. "It means so much to me to get it back all this time later.

“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.”

However, the silence following her application did not put her off from trying for other jobs, she told the BBC.

She moved to Africa, worked as a snake handler and horse whisperer, learned to fly and became an aerobatic pilot and flying instructor.

Looking back at the letter she sent when she was just starting out, Hodson told the BBC that she was “very careful not to let people who were advertising for a stunt rider know that I was female, or I thought I would have had no chance of even getting an interview”.

“I even stupidly told them I didn’t mind how many bones I might break as I was used to it.

“It seems incredible to get the letter back after all this time. 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.”

• Comment below on this story. Or let us know what you think by emailing us at [email protected] or tweet us to tell us your thoughts or share this story with a friend.