A couple who have been kept apart by the pandemic have celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

Steve and Pauline Dugdale married on May 8, 1971 at Fordington Methodist Church in Dorchester.

Former coach driver Steve, 74, lives at Signature House care home in Dorchester after he became paralysed from the waist down in 1998.

Although the couple have been apart during the pandemic, they say their 'hearts have been entwined'.

Steve met Pauline, 72, when he was 20 at a youth club in Yeovil.

After marrying they lived happily in Cornwall Road, Dorchester for three years.

They then moved to Whitfield Road, had two daughters and now have five grandchildren and have been there for the last 43 years.

Steve was a coach driver with Bere Regis Coaches and enjoyed his job a lot. In 1998 he Steve was taken ill and was diagnosed with a virus called Transverse Myelitis, which resulted in him becoming paralysed.

Pauline has visited Steve as often as she can but has faced difficulties from suffering with exhaustion due to her heart not always being in rhythm. Despite this, Pauline was Steve’s rock and she was so supportive throughout all the issues. Life took another downward turn in February 2020. Steve went to a football match in Dorchester and when he got back to Signature House he became very ill and was taken by ambulance to Dorset County Hospital where he went straight to ITU with suspected septicaemia.

He remained in a critical condition and was kept in ITU for two weeks before being transferred to a ward and then back home a week later. Again Pauline was his strength and he pulled through.

Steve said he wanted to wish his wife a happy anniversary through the pages of the Dorset Echo.

He said: "Happy 50th wedding anniversary to my beautiful wife Pauline. You have been my past, you are my present and you will be my future. I love you with all my heart and always will."