THE LOVE BUS

WHEN they boarded a bus, they were not expecting to buy a one-way ticket to love.

- BY HANNAH BRITT

But with more than 3.7 billion local bus journeys taken every day - some for shopping, some to see friends and some to see the local match - it's hardly surprising some lead to romance.

Here, three couples share their experiences of romance on board a love bus...

'I married my driver'

PAULA AND LES

WORKING in a jeweller’s office by day, and as a theatre usherette by night, and going to drama school at weekends, Paula Valder was always on the bus.

Her regular bus driver, Les, was the spit of 1960s singer Gene Pitney and Paula says: “He was a total dish.”

One day, she plucked up the courage to invite him to a party she was throwing - thrusting an invitation into his hand... and he came.

She says: “I'll always remember his face - it was tramps and tarts-themed, but I hadn't told Les, who showed up in a suit.

“He told me afterwards that he'd never have come if I'd let on it was a fancy dress party, so thank heavens I didn't.”

Six weeks later, when Paula discovered that she was pregnant, she remembers: “Les took me in his arms and told me that it was meant to be.

“That Christmas, I moved in with Les in Polegate, Eastbourne, in East Sussex, into a little two-up two-down.

“And when our son Steven came along the following March it was wonderful.

Our younger son Barry Gene came along two years later, and our family was complete.”

That fateful meeting was in the summer of 1976, and the couple have been married for 46 years and have two grandchildren.

Now 74, and still living in Eastbourne with Les, 79, Paula says: "We married in April 1979 in a little church.