Mother to wed holiday toyboy

A 44-year-old Staffordshire mum has today told of her plans to marry an Egyptian man half her age who she met while taking a holiday abroad last year.

Kim Greathead, who is from Cherry Tree Road, based in Norton Canes, said that she believes that the relationship with 22-year-old bar waiter Ali Abdl Alaal will last.

The lovestruck couple met over a cocktail while Kim was on a two-week break with her mother, who was recuperating from a hip operation, to Egyptian resort Sharm el-Sheikh.

Throughout the holiday Kim and Ali remained close but it was not until she returned home to Norton Canes that the relationship really got off the ground.

Kim said: "We fell in love by text really. When my trip ended and Ali promised to text I didn't think he would. It was only when he started texting me that it took off."

Despite the sceptics Kim agreed to marry Ali when he asked to tie the knot by text and visited him in October for two weeks on her own.

She said: "That was lovely to see him and we spent a lot of time together and got to know each other. I suppose we do have a lot of things in common and being there with him made me fall even more in love I think.

"I know it is going to be difficult, there is a lot of prejudice going on about the relationship because he has got to come out here to live.

"He wanted me to go there at first but I can't do that because I have responsibilities here. I have a daughter so that was it," she said.

"He is really worried about coming to live out here, he isn't doing this just for a visa otherwise why would he want me to go out there to him," she added.

Describing her 22-year-old fiancee as very romantic, Kim said that their wedding has since been put on hold after Ali's father was seriously hurt in an accident but they had been hoping to marry in January.

She added: "Ali is a Muslim but that isn't causing us any trouble, he doesn't expect me to follow Muslim rules."

Now Kim and Ali talk regularly via a webcam over the internet and are waiting for when she can travel to Egypt for their wedding.

By Shaun Lintern