A FORMER Bolton woman is preparing for an emotional reunion with an old schoolfriend from 30 years ago thanks to an amazing coincidence involving the Bolton Evening News.

Doreen Chambers, aged 49, visited an old friend in Bolton recently and bought a copy of the paper to read at the station while waiting for her train home to Buxton.

As she flicked through the pages, she just happened to notice an old picture of Pikes Lane Infant School, Deane Road, in Les Gent's popular 'Looking Back' column. Doreen said: "I saw the photograph showing a 1951 reception class and I felt sure that I would recognise someone on it.

"Sure enough there was Lynn Patterson, now Grundy, who had been my best friend and lived in the same area of Bolton."

Doreen met Lynn when she started at the school in 1957.

She had to go straight to work when she arrived back in Buxton but set about tracking Lynn down as soon as she got home.

The photograph had been sent in by Lynn's daughter Amanda. Using the surname and the address supplied with the picture in the paper, Doreen set out to find her long lost friend using directory enquiries. And within a few minutes, on the same day she had seen the picture in the paper, Doreen was talking to Lynn, 50, who lives with Amanda in Farnworth.

Doreen said: "Amanda picked up the phone and asked her mother if she knew anyone by the name of Doreen Reynolds which was my name before I got married.

"It was quite emotional because in the background I heard Lynn say 'Oh, that's my best friend!'.

"We are going to write to one another again to set a date for the reunion and exchange news and photographs." The two schoolfriends have 30 years of catching up to do and will meet soon.

Doreen added: "I last saw Lynn in December 1966 at her wedding and am very excited about the reunion.

"We wrote to one another for a time after the wedding but gradually lost touch over the years.

"I married a soldier from Horwich in May 1967 and we left Bolton for a new life in Singapore."

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