A NURSE who found love after travelling half way across the world has received the personal congratulations of Health Secretary Alan Milburn.

The MP for Darlington met Bernadette Morales, 27, from the Philippines during a visit to North Tyneside General Hospital.

After opening a £1.8m emergency care centre, which is the first stage in the development of a new emergency care system for the North Shields hospital, Mr Milburn was introduced to Bernadette and her fiance Andrew Redpath, 39, who is also a nurse at the hospital.

Staff nurse Bernadette was one of 30 health professionals from the Philippines who flew out to the North-East a year ago.

Not only has she settled in well, but after meeting charge nurse Andrew they are to marry.

Bernadette had been due to work at Wansbeck Hospital in Ashington but a change of plan brought the two nurses together.

The couple plan to hold two ceremonies, one in the Philippines in October, and the other at St Edward's Church in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside.

Andrew, who is an organiser for the health trade union Unison, said: "When I asked her to join the union I didn't have that kind of union in mind."

Bernadette read about the UK job in a nursing magazine while working in a lung unit in the Pampanga area of the Philippines.

Leaving behind the warm, humid weather of the Philippines for the bracing North-East climate, she is now well established.

"I love it here, I'm really enjoying my new life in England," said Bernadette, who works on the hospital's orthopaedic ward.

Mr Milburn toured the hospital's intensive care unit where recent funding increases provided two additional beds along with four high-dependency beds.