Giving is anniversary gift

George and Elizabeth Sutherland from Dunbar marked half a century together by having a party at Dunbar's Royal British Legion.

However, they declined to accept any presents from the 120 guests and instead asked them to donate money towards Macmillan Cancer Support nurses.

A total of 420 was collected, with a further 160 being raised at a ladies' Hallowe'en day organised by Mrs Sutherland's sister, Margaret Walker, 64, the following day.

Mrs Sutherland, 69, said: "We got lots of presents for our ruby and silver wedding anniversaries and haven't got room for any more - we moved to a smaller house a few years ago.

"The Macmillan nurses just seemed a worthwhile cause. We've not really had any dealings with them, but who knows in the future."

The couple, of Stenton Road, West Barns, met after Mr Sutherland, 77, who is originally from Aberdeen, moved to Mrs Sutherland's home village of Innerwick with his family to work at Thurston Home Farm.

They married two years later at Innerwick Parish Church on October 29, 1960.

Mr Sutherland went on to work at the Blue Circle cement works in Dunbar (now Lafarge) and as a linesman for British Rail, before retiring in 1998 at the age of 65. He also served in the RAF and was mostly based in Northern Ireland.

Mrs Sutherland started her working life at the age of 15 when she took a position as a sales assistant at former ironmongers Universal Supplies on Dunbar High Street, where she worked for six years.

She returned to work at the shop around 1966 after having a family, and stayed there until the shop closed in the early seventies, at which point she started working at Belhaven Hospital as a domestic assistant.

In 1980, she took a position at Drysdales processing plant on Cockburnspath in East Lothian. Mrs Sutherland returned to Belhaven Hospital in 1987 and works there to this day. The grandmother plans to retire after her 70th birthday in May.

"I will miss the company," she said. "It gets you up in the morning and out, but I feel I've done enough now."

The couple had lived on Dunbar's Beech Street for 36 years before moving to West Barns five years ago.

They have three children, George, 47, Alison, 44, and Joanie, 40, and three granddaughters, Chloe, 20, Melissa, 18, and Rachel, ten. They also have a step-grandson, 16-year-old Edwin.

Mrs Sutherland said: "You bring up the family and then you get the grandchildren coming along - I just don't know where the years have gone!"

So how does it feel to have been married for 50 years?

"It feels much the same - it's just another year," she said.