Ref. 75997-34A SWINDON couple who found true love after being apart for 18 years will renew their wedding vows live on national television.

Melvyn and Jenny Price were teenagers when they first met in the 1960s but after 18 months of dating they drifted apart.

However, after a chance meeting they finally got hitched.

Now they will be one of 50 couples re-tying the knot at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire on Valentine's Day.

They received an invite after winning a competition run by ITV breakfast show GMTV and the ceremony will be broadcast at 8.50am on Monday.

"I entered the competition because Valentine's Day is always a romantic day for us as we were able to find happiness again," said Mrs Price, 54. "We both realise we got a second chance and this year's Valentine's Day will be extra special.

"I didn't tell my husband I had applied to GMTV so he was quite shocked when he heard.

"All this week GMTV have been featuring couples that are renewing their vows and every time I see it I get more excited.

"We hope to go for a luncheon afterwards and then will return home and open a bottle of champagne."

The couple first met in Swindon while Melvyn, 57, was in the Navy.

But after separating, Jenny eventually married and had two children, Sarah, 30, and Jason, 33.

In 1984, following a marriage break-up, she moved back in with her parents in Drove Road, and bumped into Melvyn, who never married but has a daughter, Melanie, 28, and now works for Honda.

"He stayed friends with my brother but nobody told him I had moved back home," said Mrs Price. "Three months later I was out with my brother and we bumped into him.

"The second time I saw him he scribbled a note with his telephone number on. When we went on a date it was as if we were 15 and 18 again.

"The chemistry was the same and everything clicked into place it was as if 18 years hadn't gone by."

The couple, who were married at the Bath Road Methodist Church in 1986, live in Woodland View, Wrough-ton, and have a son, James, 16.

"Married life has been absolutely fantastic," she said.

Florist Sandie Eustace, 31, of Floral Design in White-house Road, is making a bouquet which Jenny, who has suffered from arthritis in her left leg for 12 years, will carry down the aisle.

"It will be made of white orchids with a pale pink centre," she said.

"It has been specially designed so it is easy to carry."

Ben Payne