How teenage pen pals became partners for life

It started with a letter and it bloomed into a life-long relationship for Chad and Alena Benson.

The couple who became pen pals aged 17 in 1986, are now marking nearly 30 years of marriage.

Alena, from Singapore, initiated the exchange, writing to several people worldwide, including Chad from Plymouth.

"I just sent it for the fun of it, not thinking that I was going to get a reply," said Alena, 55.

Their correspondence flourished from their first letters.

"My mother and father are self-employed fishmongers, and they own a shop in Stoke selling wet fish, shellfish, smoked fish, and also they fry fish and chips for their customers," said Plymouth City Council gardener Chad when he introduced his family.

"I'm living in a small country called Singapore, very far away from England, but looking at the world's map, you can see that Singapore is surprisingly, very, very tiny," said Alena when she described her home.

Their letters continued through the late 1980s and in 1993, nurse Alena decided to visit pen pal Chad in the UK.

"I just wanted to travel, so it was just a stopover to come and see him," said Alena.

Chad, 56, said on meeting Alena for the first time: "She was just drop-dead gorgeous, I thought, 'Oh my. She can't be my pen pal.'"

The visit was only 19 days, but they realised their bond was more than just friendship.

After Alena returned to Singapore, the pair began daily phone calls, despite the high costs.

"My mum said, 'Chad, you've got to pay this bill off'.

"I think it was about £350 a quarter or something like that."

They also started exchanging cassette tapes of each other chatting, more than 100 tapes were sent between the two of them, before their relationship took a major turn.

In February 1994, Chad visited Alena in Singapore and he proposed to her, despite initial resistance from her parents.

"I said I would not marry anyone else and they realised it was serious and they didn't stop me," she said.

Alena moved to the UK in 1995, bringing with her all the letters and cassettes they had exchanged.

Both admit that young people brought up with social media find it hard to understand that they met through the very analogue form of letters.

The International Youth Service, which gave the impetus to the letters exchange, has since closed.

They married on 17 February 1996, two years after Chad's visit to Singapore and now have three children.

"At the end of the day she's my best friend," said Chad, who said he still listens to the cassettes at their home in Yealmpton, Devon.

"And you're my best friend," said Alena.

Their wedding which was modest, with a budget of £2,000, marked the culmination of their decade-long journey from pen pals to life partners.

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