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´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Solent is helping 40 couples share the love this summer by celebrating their years of wedded bliss live on the radio.

Each couple will be dropping in to the Julian Clegg Breakfast Show and sharing their wedding and marriage tales – happy and sad – as part of the station's 40th birthday celebrations.

The Breakfast Show team put a call out for loved-up listeners who had been married for just one year all the way through to people celebrating their ruby weddings, so they had a happy couple for each of Solent's 40 years.

Every couple will be featured on Julian's show in the coming weeks, complete with an opportunity to play their wedding song.

Said Julian: "We're certainly showing that romance is alive and well. But how will the experience of those who got married in 1970 differ from the newly-weds – and what tips can they pass on?"

The Solent Summer Of Love couples include Ethel and Tony Ackerman from Southsea. Three years ago they were told Tony had just six months to live after contracting prostate cancer. As they celebrate their 38th anniversary, Ethel says every anniversary now is cherished all the more.

When Stephen Emmerson, from Southampton, offered to give future wife Sandy a lift to their first date she dressed up to the nines expecting to be picked up in a posh car, but Stephen turned up in his milk float. This year is their 33rd anniversary.

Over in Cowplain, Phillipa and Bruce Holman had a stressful wedding reception – it was raided by police who attempted to arrest the father of the bride for running an unlicensed bar in the church hall. But, 26 years later, they are still going strong.

John and Lucy Tillotson, from Fareham, are celebrating their sixth anniversary this year after meeting on a blind date – between John and one of Lucy's close friends. Lucy had come to keep her pal company, but fell in love herself.

Radio Solent will keep on spreading the love with a host of events and features across the summer. Afternoon presenter Katie Martin will be getting hearts racing as she follows four former brides vowing to get fit and lose enough weight to get back into their wedding dresses.

Faith programme presenter Tim Daykin, meanwhile, will be following couples from different faiths as they tie the knot this summer.

Listeners can get in touch with their own love stories via email to summeroflove@bbc.co.uk.

Pictures of the above mentioned Solent's Summer Of Love couples are available along with a group shot of all 40 couples with Julian Clegg.

HD