DIANE WALSH from Jamaica. Diane was born in St Andrew, Jamaica, in 1964. "My dad was a mechanic. He did moonlighting at the weekends, fixing people's cars, and I'd tag along with him.

"I remember hiding behind his pants, peeking out. Customers loved him.

"Years after his death, people remembered him with lots of affection.

"Church was every Sunday without fail. Friday was market day - you'd always walk to market and back three miles - my step-grandmother would be balancing a few pounds of fruit and vegetables on the top of her head," she remembers.

After high school, Diane got her first job in 1982 and worked for 15 years at the National Commercial Bank.

In the 1990s, via the internet, she first met the Englishman she would marry.

"Edward put an advert there and I answered it. His reply made me laugh - I was howling! That's what first attracted me.

"We'd met on February 22, and Edward asked me to marry on March 8."

In August, Edward visited Jamaica and met Diane, her family and friends. That December, she visited England for the first time to sample the winter.

"Before I came, I tried to gauge what cold was - how cold was cold? So I emptied the freezer and stuck my head in! I closed the door as much as I could and tried to find out that way," she said.

Diane had to make many adjustments, adapting to life in a new land.

"The weather was the least of my worries. For a few months, I felt in the middle of nowhere. I needed to find areas where I felt familiar. Everyday things like where I could get familiar Jamaican food.

"I also had to get used to the fact I was in a minority here - strange accent, strange colouring.

"But the thing that got me was the racism. I'd never experienced that before.

"In Jamaica it was class - and how brown you were. The price went up on the market, the lighter you became - we accepted that.

"But racism hit me hard.

"We were living in Eccles, but after a few months I said No more'.

"And that's how we came to Bolton - it's tons better. "We are well settled here now.

"What really got me was the market stalls - everything I need for Jamaican Saturday soups.

"My mother visited in February. She asked what to bring and I said, You don't need to bring a thing - I can get everything but green gungo peas'."