A newlywed couple fighting US immigration to be together for Christmas have won the support of a former Bradford man who saw their story on the Telegraph & Argus internet website.

David Scott, of Yeadon, and his American wife Paige, pictured, who married in Georgia in June just weeks after meeting on the Internet, are living thousands of miles apart. Mr Scott, 29, is seeking a residency permit but cannot travel to the US while the application is being processed, while his wife, 32, used up her holiday entitlement for the year earlier this month when they had their marriage blessed at Lincoln Cathedral.

The couple are now begging the US Embassy to grant him special permission to travel to America so he can spend Christmas and see in the Millennium with his wife.

Kevin Webster, who married his Californian wife Lurline in 1975 having stayed in touch via letter and audio tapes from when they met in Bradford the previous year, e-mailed the T&A after logging on to the newspaper's website and has now been put in touch with the Scotts.

Father-of-four Mr Webster, 51, who now lives in Lincoln, said he would be writing to the embassy to back the couple's case because their romance was almost a mirror image of his own.

"We log on to the T&A site a couple of times a week as it's a great way to keep in touch with the place and when we saw their story we wanted to offer them whatever support we could," he said.

l The T&A website can be found at www.thisisbradford.co.uk

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