Couple recreate chance coach meeting 30 years on

A couple who got married after meeting on a coach when a breakdown forced passengers to switch services have recreated the journey 30 years later.

Alison and Paul Forrester's eyes first met when they were travelling from Glasgow to Manchester in 1991.

Alison was travelling home from a wedding when her coach broke down and she had to board another.

There was only one seat available next to Paul and the rest is history for the Bury pair, who now have two daughters.

They have now recreated the journey after National Express put out a call for people to share their stories to mark the company's 50th anniversary.

"I'd been to a friend's wedding in Aberdeen and when the coach broke down I had to get another from Glasgow," Alison said.

She explained how she had struggled to find the coach and was helped by two women, who she later discovered were her future husband's mother and sister.

"I got on the coach and I just sat in the first empty seat, which turned out to be next to Paul," she said.

A while into the five-hour journey Alison fell asleep and woke up to realise she had been resting her head on Paul's shoulder.

"He'd been polite and not never moved it," she said.

"So to break the ice, I offered him one of my homemade sandwiches and we chatted for the rest of the journey.

"I told him about my friend's wedding and he talked about golf and where his family lived. I told him I worked at Bury Council, and we found out we both lived in Bury.

"We couldn't believe we had been living so close to each other for years and had never met."

When the coach arrived in Manchester Alison's brother, who was supposed to be picking her up, failed to turn up, leading to Paul offering her a lift home.

"I wouldn't usually get in a car with strangers but we'd been chatting for five hours on the coach and I'd really got to know him," she said.

After being dropped off the pair said their goodbyes. "I thought 'oh he was nice I hope I bump into him again'."

The next day, and with a little encouragement from his friend, Paul decided to call Bury Council and try to track down "Alison with the red hair".

"We met for a drink that weekend, feeling like we had known each other for years," he said.

The couple married three years later and have daughters Chloe, 28 and Phoebe, 23, and still live in the same house in Bury where Paul lived when they first met.

"Without that journey, we would have continued to walk past each other without a second thought and be living a completely different life now," he said.

Chris Hardy, of National Express, said: "We knew we had to do something to help them celebrate and bringing their daughters along for the journey seemed fit for the occasion."

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