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A man has revealed how he met the love of his life completely by accident 27 years ago – after he texted a random number for a joke.
Donovan Shears, 45, from Coventry, was given his first mobile phone on his 18th birthday and decided to fire out text messages saying ‘hello’ to made-up numbers.
A former DJ who now works in cyber security, Donovan said: ‘I started sending out random text messages, showing off to my friends saying, “I can page other phones.”
‘I picked the first four digits the same as mine which were 07775, then the last three digits randomly – it was probably about five or six different numbers – and then didn’t think anything of it.’
So the jokester was stunned when he received a message back from a woman called Kirsty Shears, who was living more than 100 miles away in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. Little did he know the stranger would later become his wife and mother of his two children.
Upon receiving the random message on her phone, Kirsty simply replied: ‘Who’s this?’
Donovan revealed: ‘When she told me she was living in Cleethorpes I was like, “where’s that in Coventry?”
‘We were texting so much my phone bill was over £250 a month, I think that’s when I decided we should call.
Kirsty Shears (left) and her husband Donovan Shears (right) met in 1998 when he texted her number randomly while joking around with friends
‘Feelings started to develop and she’d got the most beautiful Scottish accent, which attracted me to her as well.’
The pair exchanged text messages and phone calls for six months before arranging to meet in-person for a date in Donovan’s home city of Coventry where they quickly fell for each other.
Four years later, the star-crossed couple got married in 2002 and went on to have two children, Stirling, nine, and Alora, six.
Reflecting on their fated meeting, Kirsty said: ‘I’d only just got the mobile so assumed it was from somebody I’d given my number to so just responded to it saying, “Who’s this?”
‘It came back “Don” and we just started chatting from there.
‘We would text through the day and then obviously it would become more and more frequent and then at one point we decided we should phone each other.’
The couple’s blossoming relationship started before phones with cameras became the norm.
Scots-born Kirsty, who had an Alcatel mobile phone, recalled how she and Donovan had to describe what they looked like over text.
The quality engineering manager said: ‘I asked him what he looked like and he said he was 6ft 6ins and I thought, “Is he really?”
Donovan, who was 18 years old at the time, was stunned when he received a message back from a woman who was living more than 100 miles away in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. She simply said: ‘Who’s this?’
The pair exchanged text messages and phone calls for six months before arranging to meet in-person for a date in Coventry
Donovan and Kirsty Shears went on to get married in 2002 – four years after the initial text
‘Luckily, he really is that tall so I wasn’t being catfished via text.
‘I told him I was Scottish, 5ft tall and not slim but not fat and he said: “That’s my type.”‘
They saw each other for the first time when they met at the very romantic Coventry train station.
Kirsty added: ‘I said to my stepsister, “I’ve got to go and meet this guy”, and she was like, “He could be anyone”, and I was like, “Yes, I know”, but I was 18 and didn’t really think about consequences.
‘I just got on a train and came to Coventry.’
Ever the gentleman, Donovan took Kirsty to a nightclub on their first date before buying her a kebab afterwards.
‘The rest is history,’ he said.
‘I remember coming back from our first night out and we just cuddled up, it was kind of magical in a way.
Scots-born Kirsty (right), who had a Alcatel mobile, recalled how she and Donovan (left) had to describe what they looked like over text as phones with cameras had not yet become the norm
Donovan, who took Kirsty to a nightclub before buying her a kebab, described their first date as ‘magical’
The star-crossed couple went on to have have two children, Stirling, nine, and Alora, six
‘She is an amazing woman, she’s so intelligent and we know each other so well.
‘She’s my best friend as well as my wife.’
This Valentine’s Day, Kirsty and Donovan are joining dozens of other couples who are renewing their marriage vows at a special service in Coventry Cathedral.
Donovan said: ‘I took my son for a suit fitting yesterday and he absolutely loved it, then my girl, she’s like, “I want to see Mummy get dressed up”. She can’t wait.’
