Reg and June Waudby are the diamond couple today as they celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.

They were married at the old Blake Street register office before Reg had even had his 21st birthday, and June was sweet seventeen. The couple were so young they could not even afford to go on honeymoon, as Reg was still only an apprentice. But Reg said: "We've made up for it since."

The couple, who live on Ebor Street, off Bishopthorpe Road, York, will celebrate tonight with about 80 friends and family members, including Reg's best man and their two daughters and two sons.

They met in unlikely circumstances over the playground wall whilst they were both at Knavesmire School - Reg would not have been a pupil if his previous school on Poppleton Road had not been bombed.

The romance could have been doomed when Reg left school at 14, leaving June behind.

But the love-struck teenager returned to the school every lunchtime to visit his sweetheart.

June said the secret of a happy marriage was "just to trust each other, love each other.

"We always look after each other."

JOHN and Jean Winspear have survived the odds to celebrate their golden wedding today.

The couple, of Acomb, began courting after meeting at the Rialto cinema in York.

They tied the knot in Clifton Church, before settling in a house in South Bank.

Before the birth of their sons, John and Terry, Jean, 73, worked at Terrys, while John, 71, was a railway worker.

Later, John became a club steward, working at the Promenade, Crescent and Holgate Working Men's Clubs.

The pair, who have a grandson, granddaughter and an adopted great-grandson, say 50 years of marriage have been made even more special by John's survival of a recent stroke, which saw his doctor described him as a "miracle man".

Jean said: "It's about learning to give and take. I'd definitely do it all again."

John and Jean celebrated their anniversary with a family party.

Updated: 09:47 Friday, July 25, 2003