DIAMONDS are forever - or in the case of Cliff and Alice Pimblett 60 years.

The couple had a very special New Year's Day this year when they celebrated their diamond wedding along with the dawning of a new millennium.

Alice, 83, is a permanent patient on Ward 4 of Devonshire Road Hospital, cared for by dedicated staff who joined the couple's celebrations on January 1 with a special cake and a telegram from the Queen.

Cliff, 84, who is very deaf told the Citizen with the aid of a care worker: "In 60 years of marriage we have never argued.

"We have done everything together and were only separated when I was called up during the second world war when I was in the army for six years, four of which I served with Montgomery as a Desert Rat."

Devoted Cliff, who still visits his wife on the Dial-a-bus four days a week from his home in Fairway Road in Blackpool, recalled happy memories of his marriage in Wigan.

He said: "I saved up to hire a Rolls Royce to take us to church, even though the church was only a short distance away."

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