A CHEEKY teenage dare has meant lifelong love and friendship for Weymouth couple Bill and Ivy Hain.

Bill, 88, and Ivy, 86, are celebrating 67 years of marriage today with a few quiet drinks with friends.

The smiling couple, of Sedgefield Close, first met at a weekly fun fair in Dorchester when Bill was 17 and Ivy 15.

Ivy said: "In those days all the young people used to meet at the fair. We were in separate gangs of girls and boys and when we saw Bill my friends dared me to go up to him and pinch his bum, so I did!"

Ivy said the two became firm friends before becoming a couple and since their wedding at St George's Church in Fordington, Dorchester, in 1937 'on a gloriously sunny day' they have been inseparable, except for the Second World War.

During the war Bill signed up with the Royal Engineers and worked in the bomb disposal unit, while Ivy volunteered as a balloon operator with the RAF. Both received numerous medals for their efforts.

Ivy was born and brought up in Dorchester and Bill was born in Somerset but their two children, six grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren are spread all over England and Ireland.

Bill has been in a wheelchair for the past 46 years and has campaigned tirelessly for wheelchair-users. He and Ivy also spent 20 years as chairman and secretary of the local branch of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council.

Bill said happiness, friendship and love have kept them together: "We love each other, and we always have.

"People want so many material things these days but we've always been happy with what we've got."

Ivy added: "When we went into the services we put our furniture into storage but just before we came out the place where we were storing it was bombed and we lost everything.

"We didn't let it get us down, we just got on with it and built our home up by buying a piece of furniture each week.

"We haven't had an exciting life but we've been through a lot of ups and downs and we're always together - which has made us very close."