Bringing People Together Since 1983

The UK’s Best Known Matchmaker

For most of my life, I lived in Ibiza. I married and raised my two children on the island. At the age of forty, I sadly separated from my husband and returned to the UK with two small children.

It was a very lonely time for me and a complete shock for my children who had only ever attended a Spanish convent school in Ibiza town. I contacted the Samaritans. With hindsight, this was a call for help, however I decided to train as a Samaritan and joined a local branch in Banbury. The training was superb and enabled me to control my own loneliness and concentrate on others.

We moved to Shropshire where I joined the Shrewsbury branch and began training Samaritans. However, it was necessary to continue handling calls to keep up to date with the issues that were affecting people’s lives.

Shropshire was home to a thriving farming community in which we became immersed. The children and I were fortunate enough to live on the Earl of Plymouths estate, just two miles outside Ludlow in a beautiful rambling old farmhouse nestling behind the old medieval town.

I soon became close friends with some of the women who lived in the area, mostly at the school gates. One woman called Sally, became a dear friend. She also worked for the Samaritans. One evening, after a shift on the phone lines, my friend Sally suggested we go for a drink before returning home. We sat and talked about our work and about the fact that on one specific shift, between the two of us, we had answered calls to no less than seven farmers in total, which was extraordinary. Sally then passed a throwaway remark that we should start a dating agency for lonely farmers…

So, that is exactly what we did!

Sadly, Sally died of cancer shortly afterwards. I continued to set up the business in my farmhouse, honouring our shared goal. With the help of another good friend, Geraldine, our agency went from strength to strength. I have never looked back!