That’s exactly that 22 years-old Gwen Mackey from Derry has done.

Her parents’ eyes met during a lecture in agriculture at Harper Adams University in the early 1970s - and the rest as they say is history.

Now Gwen has graduated from Harper Adams with a BSc Hons. Degree in Veterinary Nursing and Practice Management, 37 years after her parents Roger and Wendy first met.

Asked about whether or not she, too, has found love at Harper, Gwen pointed out that her boyfriend, Jonathan Payne, is also a Harper graduate. “You never know!” she said.

Gwen’s dad, Roger, who runs a farm with his wife Wendy on the Molenan Road studied at the National Institute of Poultry Husbandry at Harper Adams between 1970 and 1972.

“I went on to work at three different poultry places in England up until 1976, until I went back home to Derry to work on a livestock farm and then as a meat inspector for the Department of Agriculture,” he said.

“My wife, Wendy, is from Churchdown in Gloucestershire. She came to Harper in 1971 to do an HND in Agriculture.

“We married while she was still a Harper student and I was working on the other side of Gloucester - she travelled back and forth, staying in Shropshire during the week.

“She graduated in 1974 and we had our first child in 1975. We have four children and Gwen is the youngest. I’ve tried to get them all to come to Harper, it’s such a great place, but we only succeeded with Gwen, and only then with the help of Basil Bayne, secretary to the Harper Adams in Ireland Association who made sure she got the free coach to see the university.”

And is Gwen as happy as her dad about her coming to Harper?

“Definitely – I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to study agriculture and animal related studies. I’ve had an amazing time here and have no regrets at all.”