A COUPLE who met on a blind date more than 70 years ago celebrate their platinum wedding anniversary today.

Walter Youd first set eyes on Bea at the Spiritualist Temple in Blackburn -- but he had been expecting someone else!

The couple had been set up by a friend, but it proved to be a meeting that would last a lifetime.

"She had lovely legs," remembers 94-year-old Mr Youd. "And she was very bright too. We just hit it off."

The couple married at St Andrews Church in Livesey Branch Road and honeymooned in Blackpool.

They went on to run a cake shop in Redlam Brow for 25 years. The shop was later knocked down and the couple were re-homed by the council to Ribble House in Larkhill.

The couple, who have been at their current home at Haydock Nursing Home on Pleckgate Road for three years, have three daughters and a son, ten grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

But far from settling for the quiet life in their later years, when they reached their 50s, Walter and Bea, now 92, discovered they shared a passion for travel abroad.

"We've had some fabulous holidays," said Mr Youd.

"We been as far east and as far west as you can go in Europe."