A COUPLE who married and then divorced while they were still teenagers have tied the knot again nearly 40 years later – just after discovering one of them has terminal cancer.

Jeanette and Malcolm Salmons, of Palmerston Road in Buckhurst Hill, have been apart for nearly four decades, during which time they have endured the tragedy of their only child's suicide and started their own new separate families.

But after years of heartache, and the breakdown of their new marriages, the couple walked down the aisle together at St John's Church in Buckhurst Hill last month, exactly 39 years to the day after they first wed back in 1970.

The ceremony was given added poignancy after Mrs Salmons, 55, was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer last year.

Mr Salmons, 57, said: “We haven't got time to be unhappy. We don't know how long we've both got together, so we have to make the most of the time we have.”

Mrs Salmons, 55, said: “But it's been like a fairytale. Even if you'd asked me five years ago if I thought we'd be back together I wouldn't have believed it.

“We just want to make the most of our time together. We just don't worry about the little things anymore - we're just grateful for what we have.”

The couple first married at Hackney Town Hall back in 1970. Malcolm was 18 and Jeanette was 16 and pregnant.

But the couple's union soon came under strain.

Within two years they were divorced.

Mrs Salmons said: “We don't regret getting married but we were just too young at the time. I was at home all day on my own looking after the baby, and Malcolm was out all day trying to earn money.”

After losing contact, the pair were reunited following the suicide of their daughter Marie at the age of 20.

She was buried at the same church where the couple remarried.

Mr Salmons, who runs the Loughton Dry Cleaning Centre in Loughton High Road, said: “It was very important to us that we be married at St John's. It's was like we'd come full circle.”

The couple's first honeymoon was a one-night stay at the Treetops Hotel in Epping, which is now a sheltered accommodation block.

Mr Salmons said: “We only had a few people at the first wedding and it was a bit of rush, but this time round we had a big party and had a two week honeymoon in Malaysia.”

Mrs Salmons added: “We are so grateful for St John's for letting us marry there.

“It does seem like fate in a way. If I had any advice for other couples it would be that marriages aren't easy and you have to work at it. But if you're in love that's all that matters.”