It may have been more than 50 years since they last spoke but that didn't matter as a former Kent woman and her Spanish friend were reunited.

The wonders of technology and the kindness of strangers led to Antonio Garcia and Sally Cooper reliving old times.

KMTV reports on the reunion

They spent 25 minutes on a video chat on Wednesday afternoon organised by Antonio's daughter Pilar. As previously reported, they had met on the Mediterranean island of Majorca in the early 1960s.

Policeman Antonio later visited Sally at her family home in Folkestone but the two of them lost contact several years later.

Suffering from coronavirus, Antonio was desperate to find out what happened to his friend and hoped to make contact.

With very little information to go on, Pilar contacted KentOnline and with the help of a family historian, we were able to track Sally down to Ireland.

Knowing she lived in Beaufort, County Kerry, we made contact with village postmaster Melvin Carson, who went and told her about Pilar's search.

Now 86, Antonio, who has other health problems, is said to be on the mend from the virus.

And according to Pilar, speaking with Sally, 76, was just the tonic he needed.

She said: "He's really feeling like his old self again now. It was a very nice conversation they had and they both enjoyed speaking after all these years.

"They spoke about how wonderful it is how technology allowed them to speak and how grateful they were to the people who helped connect them."

She added that they spoke at length about their lives now and their memories of each other's parents.

As for the future, they are hoping to meet again, whether in Spain or the Netherlands where translator Pilar lives.

Coincidently, it emerged that Sally's son also lives there – just a 25-minutes drive away.

Sally was delighted to have renewed acquaintances, saying: "It was a long time ago, but when talking, it seemed like it was all yesterday."

Read more: All the latest news from Folkestone

Read more: Latest coronavirus news from Kent