Charities to benefit from golden couple's celebration

A big-hearted couple have celebrated their golden wedding anniversary by raising £1,000 for cancer charities.

Michael and Sally McLeish, who live in Armadale, decided to ask their friends and family for donations rather than receiving gifts and raised an impressive 890, which they topped up to 1,000.

Their generosity was inspired by their own ill-health – Sally was treated for bowel cancer in 2002, and Michael was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008 and is now in remission.

The couple, both aged 69, may have been married for 50 years, but have known each other even longer, first meeting as classmates at St Anthony's Primary School in Armadale, and later at St Mary's Academy in Bathgate.

Love blossomed at dances held at the Bathgate Palais.

Michael said: "It was nice and lively, I feel sorry for the young ones now – there's nowhere like that for them to go these days."

After leaving school, Michael worked initially in the local mines before taking up a job at the brickworks in Armadale at the age of 21 – a profession he kept until retirement.

They married at St Anthony's Church in Armadale on 18 March, 1960. They began their family shortly after, with their first child, Elizabeth, born later that year. Michael followed two years later, with Margaret in 1966, Gary in 1972 and Tommy born in 1978.

After raising the children, Sally worked for several years in Scotmid. Now retired, Michael is a lollipop man at Eastertoun Primary School.

Although the two have recovered from their own brushes with cancer, it remains a cause dear to their hearts. Michael attends a cancer support group in Livingston every two months, which will receive half of the money. They are currently looking for a bowel cancer charity to receive the remainder.

Michael said: "We thought NHS were marvellous, you couldn't ask for any better treatment. Sally was treated at St John's and I was at the Western General.

"It was very nice to raise so much – we put on our invitations that we don't need anything, we just put on 'No gifts, but if you want, you could make a donation to prostate or bowel cancer charities'. I'm very pleased that we made as much as we did, but it was due to the generosity of our friends and family."

The couple, who also have eight grandchildren, marked their anniversary with a celebratory lunch on 20 March, followed by a party at St Anthony's Social Club that evening.

And the secret of their long marriage? Michael said: "When we were young we were told you make your bed, you lie in it. We've had a good family too, that's helped."