TWO long lost friends who had not seen each other for more than 40 years have been reunited – following an Advertiser appeal.

There were wet eyes, big embraces and sentimental stories when the two women met again, four decades after being best friends.

When Jackie Dearsley e-mailed a nostalgic story to the Advertiser's sister paper, the Advertiser Midweek, she had little hope of her old pal getting in touch.

But when Linda Saunders read her reminiscences, about the pair spending time together in Queen's Gardens back in the Sixties, she got straight in touch.

And on Wednesday morning the pair were reunited by the paper, for the first time since 1968.

Linda, 63, said: "I often look back to those days and I remember it really affectionately, we had a lot of laughs.

"It's so good to see Jackie again."

Jackie, 64, wrote in with an amusing anecdote about an old man with a red beret who used to stalk Queen's Gardens, outside the Town Hall, where they would meet to eat lunch.

Linda, now a grandmother-of-two who lives in Shirley, added: "My husband thought I had lost the plot when I was reading the story in the paper – I'd forgotten all about 'Red Beret' – but it all came rushing back."

The pair met as clerical students at Croydon College in 1962, and kept in touch for several years until Jackie married and moved away.

Jackie, also now a grandmother-of-two who lives in Wallington, said: "When I saw the Advertiser Midweek's Croydon Tales feature I thought I must tell them about 'Red Beret'.

"I didn't think anything would come of it and it's just amazing that Linda got in touch.

"I remember sitting here with Linda waiting for the world to end – because they said it would – and it didn't. We had some funny times."

The pair are now appealing for other old pals to come forward for a big reunion, including lost friends Jennifer Hall, Bridgett Sullivan and Myrtle Gapper.

To get in touch, e-mail rob.garratt@essnmedia.co.uk