A jeweller’s marriage proposal to his girlfriend via the front page of his local weekly newspaper has ended in success.

Love was in the air for romantic Mark Hodgson who got in contact with the Macclesfield Express to ask whether the paper would pop the question on his behalf.

Editorial staff were more than happy to oblige with a front page story published in Wednesday’s edition in time for Valentine’s Day today.

And the good news is that girlfriend Kerry has agreed to marry 32-year-old Mark whom she met last summer.

Mark and Kerry are both readers of the Macclesfield Express

Speaking ahead of the story being published, Mark said that Kerry agreeing to marry him would make him the “happiest man” in the world.

“Kerry means everything to me and I love her more than she can imagine,” he told the paper.

“With Valentine’s Day coming up I wanted to do something special.

“I thought of all sorts of weird and wonderful ways of proposing and then decided it would be a nice idea to do it through the Express, which we both read every week.”

Mark and Kerry met last summer via an online dating agency but their journey has been far from straightforward.

It was actually Mark’s friends who secretly signed him up to the website but Kerry was not originally his ideal match because she lived so far away in Devon.

But romance blossomed over email and telephone conversations until the pair finally took the plunge and met up last August.

“It felt like the first meeting was a disaster, but we reassured each other and relaxed,” added Mark.

“It was then I realised that I was madly in love with her.”

Within three months Kerry and her son had moved to Macclesfield to be with Mark, who has three children from a previous relationship.

“It was a gamble for both of us moving in together so quickly, but it has been brilliant,” said Mark.

“I want to spend the rest of my life with her.”

Mark popped the question in style on the newspaper's front page