A 35-year-old from Faversham is to be reunited with a message in a bottle he wrote three decades ago.

Carl Marchant, who threw the plastic bottle into the Channel in 1987, was tracked down after his handwritten message was unearthed more than 370 miles away on the island of Terschelling in the Netherlands.

The Lewis Close resident was contacted on Facebook after a team of beach cleaners discovered the 30-year-old letter in sand dunes last month.

Mr Marchant, who was five at the time he sent the message, said: “It was a big shock to hear that it had been found.

“I don’t remember sending it but it does show how long plastic can preserve for.”

Dated August 9, 1987, the words have remained readable despite tears at the bottom of the paper.

After detailing his address, which was in Dartford at the time, it says: “I have thrown this bottle into the sea from the Admiralty Pier, Dover.”

Mr Marchant, a carer who has lived in Faversham for two years, sent off various messages from the Kent coast with his father.

“We did it at different places including Deal and Dover.

“This is the second message of mine that I know to have been found as a couple from Luxembourg discovered one in France a year after I sent it.

“I will probably give it a go again with my son and we can send out a message together.”

Tracked down by a Dutch radio presenter, Mr Marchant hopes to be reunited with the message when it is sent back to him.

The father-of-one said: “They can hopefully preserve it and then send it back to me.”