A COUPLE who both lost their partners to cancer have found love for a second time and are now officially the most romantic couple in Bolton.

Geoff and Lesley Yates met in the summer of 1998 after they had both lost their respective spouses to cancer only months earlier.

They met through mutual friends and married at Atheron Parish Church in June 1999 after a whirlwind romance.

Mum-of-two Lesley, aged 50, lost her husband Brian to Hodgkins Disease four months before she met Geoff.

Her husband had been diagnosed with the cancer in 1994, but only became seriously ill in 1997 and spent seven weeks in hospital before he developed septicaemia and died.

Lesley and Brian had been due to enjoy a cruise to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary but were unable to go as he was so ill. They celebrated the day in hospital instead.

Unwell

Geoff, aged 54, and his wife Angela had not long celebrated their own 25th wedding anniversary when she came home from work feeling unwell.

Three days later 49-year-old Angela was sent to Christie Hospital where she was diagnosed with leukaemia and she died that same week.

Geoff and Lesley had heard of one another through mutual friends from Bolton who had moved to Harrogate, but had never met.

They attended regular dinner parties in Harrogate with their first partners and when Lesley heard that Geoff had lost his wife she wrote to him to express her condolences and offered him a free holiday in Wales where she had been running a caravan park with Brian since 1994.

Lesley said: "I suggested he could cut grass for me as it was therapeutic, drink red wine and talk about what had happened.

"He wrote back saying he couldn't cut grass but could drink red wine and the rest is history!"

The couple "clicked" immediately and found it a great help to speak to each other about their respective losses.

Dad-of-two Geoff said: "It was good being able to talk to someone who was not connected to the family but had experienced a similar thing.

"We laughed and cried our way through it all."

As Lesley and Geoff got to know to each other they found they were already linked by several coincidences.

They were both born in Townley's Hospital, which is now the Royal Bolton Hospital and had both lived in Farnworth before living only streets apart from each other in Astley Bridge during the early 1970s.

Geoff has worked as a teacher, having held the post of headteacher at St Thomas' Primary School in Farnworth, Westleigh St Paul's and Standish Woodfold School.

He is now a self-employed Ofsted inspector and magistrate.

Lesley, who has one grandson, trained as a nurse at Bolton Royal Infirmary and worked in the profession until she and Brian bought the caravan park in Wales.

After marrying, Geoff and Lesley bought a spacious new home in Euxton.

Geoff said: "Most people our age downsize into a smaller place, but with four children between us, parents and in-laws from our first marriages, we wanted somewhere new with plenty of room for everyone to come and stay."

Lesley said: "There is no jealousy of our first partners.

"We both speak about Angela and Brian all of the time and we've been lucky that friends and family have been so supportive."

Photos of Brian with Lesley, Angela with Geoff and Lesley with Geoff adorn the dining room walls revealing the couple's strong affinity with the past.

The couple recently won the accolade of the most romantic couple after entering a competition at Asda in Horwich for why love is better second time.

They are looking forward to their prize of a romantic meal for two cooked by celebrity chef Noel who is going to visit their home this week.

Lesley added: "We would encourage other people to consider what we've done.

"It can be a very long existence on your own if you lose a partner when you are young."

Geoff said: "It would have been very easy for us not to marry and people asked why we were doing it so quickly, but we knew our own minds - why wait? Seize the day."