A cheeky DJ texted a message to a random number as a joke in 1998 and ended up meeting his future wife.
Donovan Shears was given his first mobile phone on his 18th birthday so decided to send out text messages saying “hello” to made up numbers.
He was stunned when he received a message back from a woman called Kirsty who simply said “hi” and they started exchanging text messages.
They eventually arranged to meet for a date in Donovan’s home city of Coventry, and quickly fell for each other.
The couple got married in 2002 and went on to have two children, nine-year-old son Stirling and six-year-old daughter Alora.
Donovan, 45, a former DJ who now works in cyber security, 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.
“I just a message saying ‘hello’. I remember one of the messages I sent was to a number ending in 365.”
The number belonged to Kirsty Shears, who was living more than 100 miles away in Cleethorpes, Lincs.
She 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 ‘hi 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 camera phones became the norm.
Scots-born Kirsty, who had a Alcatel mobile, recalled how the couple had to describe what they looked like on 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?’
“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’.
“The first time we knew what the other looked like was when we met at Coventry train station.”
Donovan added: “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.
“Feelings started to develop and she’d got the most beautiful Scottish accent, which attracted me to her as well.”
The pair eventually met up about six months after Donovan sent the first text when he invited her to Coventry.
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.”
Donovan took Kirsty to a nightclub 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.
“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, the couple are joining dozens of others who are renewing their marriage vows at a special service at 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.”
