A MISSING wedding ring that disappeared 26 years ago brought double joy to a couple when it was returned on their wedding anniversary.

Retired radiologist Mr David Wilkinson lost his wedding band at his former home in Osbaldwick, near York, in 1975. "I lost it while I was gardening," he said. "We even looked for it with a metal detector."

Eventually he gave up the search and bought a replacement. But this too came off in a bizarre accident on Saturday - the day of his 36th wedding anniversary.

Mr Wilkinson had planned a quiet celebration with his wife, Hazel, a pathologist, at their home in Husthwaite, near Easingwold. But disaster struck when he sliced his hand and had to be rushed to hospital.

"I had been up at our holiday cottage in the Yorkshire dales doing some work. I was about to set off home on Saturday when a knife fell off the shelf and quite badly cut my fingers," said Mr Wilkinson.

"There was blood all over and I had to go to the Friarage hospital with my hand in an oven glove. For the first time in God knows how many years, I had to remove my wedding ring."

His hand was stitched and he returned home with his wife to a very odd telephone call. "The phone rang and it was Dr Catherine Jennings, a friend of ours, who bought the house where we used to live in Osbaldwick," he said.

"She said happy anniversary, which we found strange because we didn't think we had told her when it was. She explained she had been gardening that day and had found a wedding ring. She knew it was mine because of the inscription on it that said Hazel and David, 30-06-65.

"I was really quite emotional. I had been very upset when I lost it so I was delighted. We opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate."