ACCORDING to the YMCA song you can "get yourself clean" and "have a good meal" at the global organisation - but it doesn't say anything about finding a spouse!

But that's exactly what has happened to a young couple who have found love at Skipton's YMCA and are getting hitched at the town's Register Office tomorrow (Saturday).

Craig Firth and Tracey Storey arrived at the YMCA in 1997 from separate troubled backgrounds in 1997.

Neither had banked on finding a lifelong partner, but within months Craig found himself on bended knee in the Red Lion on Skipton's High Street.

Thankfully, Tracey said "Yes". Unfortunately, becoming a couple meant the pair had to move out of the YMCA's Pinder House, where they spent many happy months.

In fact, so grateful are they to YMCA staff, that Craig and Tracey have been back to visit every day since moving into their own house on Cawder Road.

Tomorrow's ceremony will be a happy day, but the newlyweds will no doubt reflect on how the YMCA's general secretary, Julia Cuttriss-Steels, and youth worker Julie Botham have helped them recover.

When Craig arrived, he had just finished a stint at Doncaster Prison. And Tracey, from Skipton, was experiencing increasing family problems.

Craig said: "I ended up in prison because of bother I got into through peer-group pressure in Barnsley, so I needed to get away. The people here would do anything for you and they have got me on the straight and narrow.

"With Tracey it was an instant attraction for me. I knew I wanted to get to know her better, especially after we had gone on a YMCA trip to Switzerland."

It was Valentine's Day this year when Craig finally plucked up the courage to pop the question. "I was shaking when I got down on one knee in the Red Lion. But when she said yes everyone started cheering and it was great," he explained.

But it seems Tracey wasn't quite so smitten when she first met Craig. She explained: "I wasn't interested in him at all at first, but he soon grew on me as I got to know him."

According to Julia Cuttriss-Steels the pairing of Craig and Tracey is the first time a relationship has blossomed at Craven YMCA."I'm going to have to get a new hat like Cilla Black on Blind Date," she joked.

And Julie Botham, who has worked hard in offering support and advice to Craig and Tracey, said: "To be honest, I tried to persuade them to wait until after Christmas, because of all the financial constraints. But they were keen to get wed and you just can't stop the course of love like that."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.