A COUPLE will be having a church service tomorrow in thanksgiving for 60 years of marriage.

Leslie and Joan Beeks, of Wycombe Road, Holmer Green, will celebrate their diamond wedding at Christ Church in The Common, Holmer Green, with friends and family present, including son Ivor, the chairman of Wycombe Wanderers.

Leslie, 84, and Joan, 80, said there have been many happy times since they first met.

Leslie said: "We've a lot to be thankful to the Lord for."

The couple first met when Joan was just 14, at Wycombe Marsh Paper Mill. They married during the war, with Leslie recovering from a back injury after a car crash outside the mill.

Joan then worked as an upholsterer and Leslie in the paper industry and they retired around 20 years ago and moved to Holmer Green.

Joan said: "It's been wonderful living here. We've made so many friends."

But they've kept active in retirement, doing modern sequence dancing until 1991. Leslie still tends the garden and watches Wycombe Wanderers matches, going with son Ivor as a VIP guest.

Leslie said: "Beeks is a very unusual name and when we say our name is Beeks, people ask, are you Ivor Beeks' parents?'"

He added: "We're both very proud of our son."

As well as their son, the couple boast three grandchildren, Mark, Paul, and Sarah and five great-grandchildren.

Joan said marriage was something that needed to be worked at.

She said: "I don't think it's easy. No-one really knows each other before they live behind closed doors."