Blind couple brought together by guide dogs

A blind couple are to marry after their guide dogs became lovers.

Claire Johnson, 50, found herself falling for Mark Gaffey, 52, when she took her pet pooch Venice to a Guide Dog Training class in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, last year where he was attending with his canine, Rodd, and now the pair are planning to get hitched next March, with their pups acting as ring bearers.

Speaking on ITV's 'Me and My Guide Dog', Mark said: "During the training our two dogs, Rodd and Venice, seemed to know something we didn't.

"They were always playing together and nuzzling up together.

"The trainers said that they were the love and romance of the course, and they brought us together.

"It's ironic we met there because we discovered that we only lived a mile-and-a-half away from each other but had never met. We were purely in the right place at the right time.

"I have never believed in fate, but it does seem like it was meant to be."

Claire - who lost her sight due to diabetes when she was just 24 - admits she made the first move on her beau when she invited him round for a coffee.

She said: "We connected straight away. I remember Mark texting me saying 'If you'd let me I could make your world a lot happier'.

"It was a lovely surprise when he proposed the first time on Valentines' Day, but I got proposed to four times that day because he kept going down on one knee.

"Rodd and Venice sleep in the same bed and are as much a couple as me and Mark.

"They will be walking us down the aisle and be ring bearers. This wedding is down to them."