A WHITCHURCH couple who met on the dodgems at a funfair on Plymouth Hoe nearly 70 years ago marked their 66th wedding anniversary on Thursday last week.

Mike and Shirley Trevena, 87 and 85, remember the day clearly. Shirley was 17 and working in a Plymouth department store and Mike 18 and had just joined the RAF. The year was 1954 and they wre married three years later at St Matthais’ Church on North Hill in Plymouth.

The couple have lived all over the world as Mike was in the RAF for 27 years. ‘I have been posted everywhere from here to Singapore and back again,’ he said. They have three children, four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Mike now has emphysema, a disease of the lungs which is life-limiting and said he wanted to mark their anniversary this year while he still can. They did so with a roast lamb dinner which Shirley cooked for Mike. ‘I was diagnosed with emphysema nine years ago and I was given four years to live so I have beaten that by five years but I am knocking on the door now,’ he said.

The couple lived in Surrey for 20 years but moved back to the area as their family all live in Torbay. Looking back to their first meeting, Shirely recalls Mike, with a friend, bumping into her on the dodgems. They both went back for the second night. ‘I said to my friend Lynne, look they are bumping into us again!’ The rest is history.