A couple say they have been left “gobsmacked” after a pair of strangers found one of their wedding rings buried on the beach, three days after they lost it.

Emily and Wayne Wolstenholme, from Folkestone, visited the town's Sunny Sands beach but when they got home realised Mr Wolstenholme’s ring was gone.

He had asked his wife to hold onto it as he went for a swim in the sea, but Mrs Wolstenholme thinks it fell out her pocket as she knelt down to stroke their dog, Alan.

“Honestly, it is so ridiculous,” she said.

“My husband and sister have been going sea swimming for a while now and last Tuesday morning I went to watch and took the dog.

“On the way down my husband asked me to hold onto his ring so I put it in my pocket with a zip.

“Stupidly, later when I got my phone out to take a picture of the dog, it must have fallen out of my pocket.

“I remember at one point bending over to stroke Alan and my phone fell out of my pocket because I had not re-zipped it.

“It was not until that evening when he asked for it back, went to look for it in my pocket and could not find it anywhere.”

The 35-year-old says she began to panic that they would never find it and posted about it on a Facebook group on the off chance someone had picked it up.

“My gut instinct was it had fallen out when my phone fell out of my pocket,” she said.

“I was searching my coat and was really upset.

"My gut instinct was it had fallen out when my phone fell out of my pocket..."

“The next morning I posted on a residents Facebook group to ask if anyone had seen it. It was a long-shot.

“I had a few replies but one guy named Brendan Sansom messaged me and said he was a metal detectorist and he would keep an eye out for it.

“He said he had found other people’s rings before.”

Later, Mrs Wolstenholme was out with a friend and suddenly wondered if the ring was in any of the pictures she had taken of Alan.

“It just popped into my head, wouldn’t it be hilarious if in the photos of Alan, you could see the ring,” she said.

“I was scrolling through the pictures and in one, the ring was in the background.

“I was so gutted - I thought it would definitely be lost because the tide was out when it fell out and it was right by the sealine. At that point it had been three days.

“I then realised I have Google Photos which tells you the coordinates of where a picture was taken.

“I sent it to Brendan and then on Friday morning he and his friend Kris Alden went looking for it with their metal detectors and the ring turned up.”

The Folkestone resident said she cannot believe the ring has been found three days after it was originally lost.

"The tide would have been in and out, it was buried under the sand..."

“I just cannot believe it. It was lost for 72 hours, the tide would have been in and out, it was buried under the sand. Because he knew roughly where to look he was able to find it.

“The ring is safely back on my husband’s finger. Now when he goes swimming he takes his ring off at home.

“It is a bit of an epic story. I am so grateful to have it back.

“I think it bothered me more than it bothered him because I am a really sentimental person.

“We will have been married for 15 years in October so it is a big deal.

"It was such a happy ending amid all the rubbish going on in the world at the moment..."

“I was absolutely gobsmacked they found it. I genuinely could not believe it at first, I thought it could have been someone else’s ring.

“What are the chances that you find it, but they did.

“It restored my faith in humanity a bit. A complete stranger reached out to help, even though the odds of finding it were really slim, they said they enjoy doing it and helping people.

“They also said they want to get a good name out there for metal detectorists because they are good, helpful people.

“It was such a happy ending amid all the rubbish going on in the world at the moment. For something like that to happen is just so lovely.”