Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Why? By recording your coincidence stories here, you can help him build a picture of what kinds of coincidences are out there and which ones seem to ‘get to’ us the most. Your coincidence stories can also help him explore the scientific explanations which may account for them – whether by doing the maths to calculate the chances of a coincidence, or speculating on the weird and wonderful workings of our brains.

Coincidences tend to be ‘surprising matches’ – sometimes they are lucky, sometimes unlucky, sometimes just mind-boggling. To help you recall the coincidences that have happened in your life, here’s a list of some common types of coincidence:

  • Surprising repetitions: for instance when you’ve had not contact with someone for ages, then find two connections to them very close together in time. Or when over several years multiple members of the same family are born with the same birthday. Or even a repetition of a really rare event – like winning the lottery twice, or your life being saved twice by the same person!
  • Simultaneous events: for example when two people phone each other at exactly the same time.
  • Parallel lives: such as when two people in a small group find they share a birthday or an unusual name, or when two people discover their lives match each other in bizarre details.
  • Uncanny patterns: imagine picking letters in Scrabble that spell your name.
  • Unlikely chains of events: perhaps you lost your false teeth overboard and found them inside a fish you caught twenty years later?

If anything coincidental has happened to you - anything that made you stop and say "well, what were the chances of that..?" - then please record your story in the form below! Please try to keep your story personal - about you or someone you know. The only thing we'd ask you to steer clear of are premonitions or déjà vu, purely because - whilst fascinating - they're quite common and also difficult to analyse.

You could also tell us about coincidences in the news, but please provide a link to a reliable source!


Title: two or three words that give a simple description of your story, eg ‘old friend’ or ‘birthday coincidence’
Coincidence: tell your coincidence story - and please include plenty of relevant detail (places, dates, numbers etc.) and include your first name if you want.
Email address (optional): please leave an email address, as then we can get in touch to find out more!

All of the information entered below except your email address will be published on this website when you press save




By ticking this box you agree that your email address can be forwarded to Wingspan Productions Ltd, who are making a BBC television programme about Chance and would like to feature Professor David Spiegelhalter's coincidence collection. In doing so you agree that the producers of the programme may contact you directly to ask you more about your story, though whether you decide to help them is entirely up to you. Your details will not be forwarded to any other party or used for marketing purposes.

By submitting this form, you accept the Mollom privacy policy.

Vertical Tabs

an unfortunate choice of client

There must be at least 50,000 inhabitants of Wrexham. There are about six or seven taxi companies in that town. The one I work for has around ten drivers available at any one time. So why did the father of my daughter's ex-boyfriend, (and by 'ex' I mean a potentially nasty piece of work that none of this family wish to have any further contact with) manage to get me as his driver when he needed a lift into town? Fortunately he did not recognise me.

Let the right one in

Celebrating a big birthday in Berlin, renting an apartment for 10 days, I was given a DVD of the Swedish film "Let the right one in". The next day my two daughters, artists in their twenties arrived, and I showed them the DVD on my laptop. The day after that we signed up for a Street Art Walking Tour. There were about 20 people on the walking tour, from all over Europe and the Middle East. Two guys in their twenties, from Germany and Denmark, both lived together in Stockholm, working as computer software designers.

Death Announcement

I had just received a text telling me a friend had died and immediately informed my wife, who was sitting in the same room and, at that very moment, doing a crossword clue which was "notice of death" !!! How weird! Colin

iPod synchronicity

I thought I'd try some candle meditation. It made me feel quite relaxed so I thought I'd try it with music after reading an article suggesting it. I always have my iPod set to random and it contains about 3000 tracks. The Finn Brothers song "Where Is my Soul" came up as the 2nd song during this meditation.

Glove loss

In the 2009/2010 football season whilst living in south London I decided to go and watch Lincoln city play Barnet at Barnet. I travelled to Stockwell and took the northern line to high Barnet, travelling on the very front carriage. I got off the tube and arrived at the football about five minutes into the game. On arrival I realised I'd left my gloves on the tube. After the match (and with cold hands) I walked back to the tube station and got onto a tune (different platform) on entering the carriage I saw that my gloves were where I'd left them.

Teacher/Pupil Reunion

When we were children in the 60s my father worked for British Rail where staff members were often peripatetic and so we moved twice in two years - from Stevenage to Mansfield, then Mansfield to Nantwich in Cheshire. The son of some neighbours in Stevenage was a friend of my brother and in the same class at school. My father started working in Crewe and one day, by chance, met this friend of my brother and it transpired his father was also working there.

Unexpected Guest Book Entry

While visiting the Left Handed store at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, USA, I was about to sign the guest book; to find that the last person who had visited and signed their name in the book, was a pastor of a small church in the little village I grew up in in New Brunswick, Canada. San Francisco is on the opposite coast of North America .

Uncanny Parallel Names

When researching for a book in 1992 on the spiritual care of people with dementia, a hospital librarian left a journal article on my desk; that was written by a music therapist in the USA. The librarain had no information about who my grandmother was, or that she was the principle inspiration for my writing this book. When I looked at the author of the article; the female music therapist had the same first and last names as my grandmother who died in 1990.

Unexpected Encounter

My husband and I were going down an elevator in a huge hotel in Rome, Italy at the end of a bus tour in June 1998 ; when a woman( who was not on the bus tour ) and I thought we might know each other. Turns out she was currently a nurse on the same medical ward at the Edmonton General Continuing Care Centre in Edmonton Alberta Canada, that I worked on as a chaplain.

The number 137

Can't be a coincidence ... the number 137 is constantly coming into my life ... raffle ticket wins, house key code number, tax code, countless, constant seemingly insignificant incidences (code given for car park on daughter's wedding day, torn scrap of paper sticking out under friend's oven - catalogue page 137 etc etc) - then Radio Times requested people write in with stories of inexplicable events and I was wondering whether they would be interested in my '137' events. The page number with the contact details?? ... page 137!!

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