A FORMER budding footballer, who suffered a stroke 18 years ago, has hailed his wife and daughters as his heroes as he celebrates 60 years' marriage.

John Hook said that, without the strength and support of his family, he would not have been able to enjoy life as much.

The 82-year-old former RAF man suffered the stroke the day after he retired from WH Allen Printers, in Princes Street, where he had worked for 21 years.

He was driving down the street when he suffered the attack which forced him to collide with two cars.

Since then, he has had sight and mobility problems, but his wife, Eileen, 81, and daughters Lynn Kennedy, 54, and 49-year-old Kay Harrison, have always been there for him.

Now today, he and Eileen celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary with a family meal for the four of them at their Mackworth home in Prince Charles Avenue, where he has lived for all his married life.

He said: "People ask what the secret of a happy marriage is and to me it is my wonderful wife and daughters.

"Since I had the stroke they have done everything for me and without them I don't even know if I would still be here.

"They are my heroes."

John and Eileen met at a friend's 21st birthday party when Eileen saw him fall to the floor during a game of musical chairs.

"I thought, look at that stupid person," she said.

She was even unimpressed by his choice of film when he took her to the cinema to see a Marx Brothers film early in their relationship.

But the pair fell in love and married at St Giles' Church on August 6, 1949.

By this time John, who served in Egypt for three years during World War Two, had seen his hopes of becoming a footballer with Derby County dashed after a freak accident.

John said: "I'd signed for Peterborough United, but the then Derby manager, Sammy Crooks, told me he wanted to sign me.

"I played in a trial game versus Bolton and early in the game I slipped and fell on my back.

"The physio looked at me and said that was it. My heart was broken, I was football mad."

So John started playing for Corinthians in Derby while working as a printer at the Derby Advertiser newspaper, a job in which he stayed for 25 years before moving to WH Allen.

He and Eileen, who gave up working as a welder when they started a family, have four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Eileen said: "We pull together and John has never been a drinker."

Daughter Kay said: "I remember one Christmas he had two and a half pints of lager and we had to put him to bed."