VALENTINE'S Day is one date that won't be forgotten easily by Bolton woman Shirley Jackson - from now on it will be her wedding anniversary! Shirley and her fiance Brian Edwards exchanged vows at a special ceremony on the most romantic day of the year.

It seemed an ideal opportunity for the couple to wed as their 'love at first sight' relationship had survived two years of unconventional courtship.

Having met at a family Christmas party in 1996, divorcees Shirley and Brian commuted between their respective homes in Bolton and Kent just to be together.

Every other weekend, 41-year-old Shirley, a former respiratory nurse at the Royal Bolton Hospital, would drive down to Orpington to visit Brian, 44, or he would make the trip north.

The journey would take anything from four to eight hours but, as Shirley says: "It was worth it."

After all, both felt the same instant attraction when they met which Brian, a heating installer, describes as "magnetic."

The couple separately attended the Kent Christmas party - a "chance in a million meeting" - with their children after Shirley's daughter, Sarah, became the penpal of Brian's niece, Cheryl. The two girls, now aged 18 and 20, wrote to each other regularly and visited each other's homes for eight years before Shirley and Brian met.

When Cheryl's father, who is also Brian's twin brother, invited his daughter's penpal and her family for a Christmas meal, Shirley only had eyes for Brian. The couple chatted comfortably over the meal and continued their conversations with hour-long telephone calls every evening for the following two years.

And, as their love grew for each other, they set marriage plans.

Shirley changed her job to work for Innovex as a nursing advisor and decided to move to Kent when Sarah had finished her A-Levels.

But when a chance to be relocated arose, she jumped at the chance.

She left her home in Little Lever to live with Brian just before Christmas, then brought the wedding forward to Valentine's Day at Bromley Register Office in Kent.

They now live in Brian's Orpington home with his two daughters Claire, 17, and Michelle, 13, and Sarah will join them after completing her summer exams.

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