WHEN young mum Nan Gaines lost her wedding ring in the garden 35 years ago she never thought she would see it again.

Nan and her husband John saved up for a year to buy a new ring -- but to Nan it was never the same as the real thing.

So imagine her joy when 35 years later her daughter Patricia Chisholm arrived home from a trip to the original family home in Scotland with the wedding ring that was lost all those years ago.

Patricia, of Grimshaw Park, Blackburn, said: "My mum and dad got married in 1963 when my mum was 21. They moved in with my dad's mum in Kilsyth in Scotland and I was born in 1964.

"A year later my mum was helping my grandma with the gardening when she lost her ring. They hunted high and low for it -- the whole family was digging in the garden but couldn't find it."

Nan, 58, said: "I'll never forget that day. I was really upset that my ring had gone. It took us about a year to save up for another but it was never the same as having the ring I was married with." Shortly afterwards Nan and her young family moved to Blackburn. She and John got divorced a few years later, Nan remarried, and John died in 1989.

In the meantime John's sister Margaret moved into her mother's home in Kilsyth where the ring was lost.

Patricia, 36, said: "The house has always been in the family, but nobody had ever found the ring. I went up to Scotland for my grandma's 89th birthday at the beginning of July. I couldn't believe it when my aunt told me she had been digging around roses in the garden on the day of my grandma's birthday when something glinted in the soil and caught her eye. She got the shock of her life when she pulled out the ring after all these years. It was covered in mud, but I have had it cleaned up and it is as good as new."

Nan, who lives with her second husband John Gaines in the Audley Range area of Blackburn, said: "I was so shocked when Patricia arrived home with the ring. It is nice to know that it was still there after all these years.

"The sad thing is, even though me and Patricia's dad were divorced, that he didn't live to know that the ring was finally found."

The family have now let Patricia have the ring as a family keepsake.