Scottish sweethearts Tom and Doreen McNulty celebrate their golden wedding anniversary tomorrow thanks to puppy love.

The retired couple, of Redcliffe Street, met when Tom went to enquire about buying a canine companion in 1952.

Hearing of a house where dogs were for sale at an old Keighley foundry where he worked, Tom went round.

He said: "I bought one of these pups from Doreen's mother. During a conversation I found she was interested in jigsaws, so I said I'd bring her some up, which I did. But I got my eye on Doreen then and I asked her father if I could take her out."

The couple married two years later at the old Lund Park Methodist Church at Malsis Road, and have seven children, 14 grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Due to family commitments, the newly-weds didn't manage a honeymoon but Tom, now 73, and Doreen 75, plan on treating themselves this time around.

Doreen said: "We are going to a restaurant at Harrogate with family and friends. We run a group and a few of the members will go too. We usually only go every Christmas. We will have some entertainment on as well."

She added that in their spare time they have run the Keighley Friends of the Elderly and Disabled for about five years.

Tom said: "Doreen is the secretary and I'm the treasurer. It's a self supporting group with no funding - people pay on the coach for our little trips.

"We go every two weeks, starting Easter Sunday and finishing in November with a trip to Barnsley."

Asked what the secret of their marital success was, however, Doreen put it simply: "We always meet each other half way."