Steve Pickard regularly travelled to Africa on business, bringing back artefacts to sell. But on one trip he came across someone special who was not so easy to bring back - the woman who was to become his wife. Helen Mead reports.

THE NIGHT CLUB was buzzing and, after a hard day's work, businessman Steve Pickard was out to have a good time.

He had gone along to the venue in the West African city of Accra, the capital of Ghana, with a friend and was having a drink and chat when he was distracted by a striking woman.

"She was standing talking to someone and I and just had to ask her to dance," he recalls. So he boldly strode across and put the question - only to be turned down flat.

The woman - Ghanaian Ivy Kutsinya - was not best pleased that she had been interrupted. "I was having a chat to the owner of the club who is a friend of mine," she says. "Then this strange man came over and because of his curly hair and looks I thought he was German. I was surprised to hear him speak English. He asked me to dance and I said, 'Excuse me, can't you see I'm talking?' I thought he was rude for butting in."

Plucky Steve was undeterred. A bit more Dutch courage and he was once again standing in front of the tall, beautiful woman. Says Ivy: "I was amazed to see him again, but my friend told me to be polite and not be so mean so I agreed to dance with him."

After a few rounds of the dance floor, the pair spent the rest of the evening getting to know one another better. "We got on very well, we were laughing a lot and cracking jokes, we shared the same sense of humour," says Ivy, 42.

Adds Steve: "The next thing we knew we were sitting at the bar drinking Guinness as the club was closing."

Caterer Ivy invited Steve to the beach the next day where they had a great time. Bradford University graduate Steve, who exports dyes and chemicals to Africa as well as importing stone carvings, was due to leave the country to fulfil work commitments in other parts of the continent. He thought it would be fun to take Ivy along, so he invited her. Ivy had never done such an impetuous thing before, but she was so struck by Steve that she agreed.

At the time Ivy, one of four children brought up in a village in the country's Volta region, lived with her parents. Fearing their disapproval, she did not tell them about the trip. Recalls Steve: "We went to the house and sneaked all her stuff out - it was like being teenagers again."

Despite her liking for Steve, Ivy had no serious thoughts about their future. She says: "Steve isn't like the men I'm normally attracted to. My last boyfriend was tall and broad, and he is quite the opposite. I just thought going along would be fun."

But Steve felt there was something there. "I had no idea whether it would last but I was keen, although we argued over a lot of things, like carrying. Ivy just would not carry anything, which was a real pain. I kept saying to her, 'If you don't like carrying by hand, why not carry things on your head like everyone else'?"

Steve returned to his home in Heaton, Bradford, for six weeks, then flew back to Ghana where the couple picked up where they had left off. They spent the next few days exploring the country, travelling north to a game reserve where they relaxed in a hotel chalet. The place had a swimming pool and Ivy agreed to let Steve teach her to swim.

She says: "When I was six I was on the beach and was swept out to sea by a freak wave. I was rescued by some fishermen but I'd been scared of water ever since. I trusted Steve enough to get in the pool and let him help me get used to it again."

For Steve, the break confirmed his feeling that the relationship was something special and he invited Ivy to Bradford to stay with him. But the pair hadn't reckoned on the hurdles that her application to visit Britain would throw up. Says Ivy: "They turned me down. They didn't believe that I was only coming over for a holiday."

The couple put a strong case, but still did not get anywhere, so they enlisted the help of Bradford West MP Marsha Singh. Says Steve: "He wrote a letter of support to go with Ivy's application, but nevertheless it was rejected again."

Under new laws, another rejected appeal would have meant the couple could not reapply for two years. So they relied on the help of Mr Singh, who pulled out all the stops on their behalf. He wrote a strongly-worded letter to the British High Commission in Ghana, followed by letters to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Eventually, after months of uncertainty, it was Government Minister Baroness Symons who suggested that the best course of action was to apply for a special "fiance visa," which meant that Ivy was coming to Britain to get married.

By now the relationship was becoming more serious, and the pair had discussed the possibility of their settling down together. "The situation simply meant it was all brought forward," says Steve, adding "We owe it to Marsha Singh, who helped us a great deal."

The couple went to town to convince the authorities that they wanted to get married. Says Steve: "I had to prove that there was adequate money to support Ivy without recourse to public funds. I had to provide bank statements and we were asked detailed questions about our engagement and had to produce things like phone bills from the time we had spent apart. They will pick up on anything that indicates that you don't know each other as well as you say you do."

He adds: "We got everything perfect - it would have been hard for them to say no."

And they didn't. Ivy, who had not been abroad before, flew across on a six-month visa. Steve met her at Heathrow Airport just before Christmas 1998, with a bunch of flowers and an armful of warm clothes. Says Steve: "She hadn't experienced cold and I knew she would not have been prepared."

Despite his instructions to bring only a small amount of luggage to put in his two-seater convertible, Ivy arrived with two huge cases, plus all her pots, pans and assorted cooking equipment. "I told her I couldn't get it all in," recalls Steve, "And she said, well pull the top down then. She soon realised what a bad idea this would have been."

Adds Ivy: "I had never been in such a cold climate - I saw people breathing out into the cold air and thought they were smoking."

With six months to play with, the couple had time enough to change their minds about tying the knot. But their love blossomed. Steve's official proposal came three months after Ivy's arrival, on the top of Ilkley Moor. And the pair opted for another romantic setting for the big day. With just a week to go before her visa expired, they wed at Gretna Green.

Says Steve: "We had the idea of Gretna, and finally did it because the thought of organising a big wedding was driving us crazy."

Steve's mum and sister, her boyfriend, Steve's school friend and his wife watched them exchange vows in the snug little chapel. Although she could not make it to the ceremony, Ivy's mum, a dressmaker, made her daughter's wedding dress - a beautiful creation in kente cloth, the traditional cloth of Ghana.

A honeymoon on the windswept Isle of Arran followed and, once home, Steve and Ivy threw a party for friends and relatives at Salem Rugby Club in Heaton. They sent pictures of the wedding and honeymoon to Ivy's family in Ghana.

Steve is still making business trips to Africa, while Ivy has settled into life here in Bradford, where she works part-time as a care assistant at a residential home. Says Steve: "She still does all her cooking - traditional Ghanaian meals. She's very fussy about food, and travels to London to buy delicacies to make dishes from home."

Adds Ivy, who has now spent a year in Britain: "It all worked out for us in the end - it was well worth the effort."

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