HARRY Swarbrick knew he had met his love match the moment he got chatting to his wife of 60 years at a football game.

The 86-year-old former plumber married his sweetheart Edith, 84, at Blackamoor Church during the infamous snowstorm which blighted dozens of occasions at the beginning of 1940 - and left the couple stranded on their honeymoon in St Annes.

The Darwen couple are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary today with family and friends at their home in Birch Hall Home for the Elderly.

Harry said: "I first spoke to Edith during a Darwen Football Club match. I knew I had picked the right girl straight away.

"Asking her to marry me was the best decision I have ever made.

"The secret is to know what you want and to hang on to it."

The couple have a daughter, Anne, and granddaughter Sarah-Louise.

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