A SLEEPLESS night on the other side of the Atlantic brought together unlikely electronic pen pals . . . and sparked off an emotional return to school for a Bolton woman.

Maggie Radliff, 53, went to St Bede's Primary School more than 40 years ago and left for the shores of America in 1964. However, unable to sleep one night in her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she stumbled across an E-Mail message from two young pupils currently attending her old primary school.

Delighted, she sent a message back to the surprised youngsters, Kevin Blakemore, 11, and Daniel Bailey, 10. Two weeks later, she said hello to them face to face.

Maggie, nee Caloe, explained: "I went to the school from 1951 to 1954 and had not been back since.

"Although I do have family in Bolton, we moved to Kirkham when I was 16, so usually when I come back to England, I re-visit the town on just day visits."

However, by pure coincidence, Maggie did have a week long visit planned to Bolton when she came across the message from Kevin and Daniel.

She said: "I couldn't sleep so went to the computer and got onto the Internet.

"Because I had my trip planned, I thought I would look at the pages from Bolton.

"I saw education and decided to see if I could find anything from Hayward Tech, where I went when I was older.

"I never expected to find anything from St Bedes, and couldn't believe it when I saw the message put on by Kevin and Daniel.

"It is just lovely now to be able to meet them face to face."

Headmaster at the school, Mr Jack Hatch, said: "The children check the Internet three times a day and could not believe it when they saw Maggie's message waiting for them.

"At first we had no idea where she was writing to us from.

"When we found out she was due to visit Bolton, we were delighted to be able to invite her to visit us."

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