IT was just the sort of corny chat-up line that normally stops any prospect of romance in its tracks.

Teenager Denis Treeby took one look at the pretty young girl standing in a hospital corridor and asked her: “Where have you been all my life?”

She already had a boyfriend and could have been excused for giving the cheeky young stranger the brush-off.

But the pair started going out together and walked up the aisle three years later.

Yesterday Denis and his wife Sally celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary, making them one of the longest married couples in the UK.

Relaxing at their home in Pennington they received a card from the Queen congratulating them on their achievement.

Now the couple have out-lived most of their friends in a remarkable union that has endured despite their differing backgrounds and personalities.

Denis, 98, said: “My wife’s an artist and I’m an engineer – we’re complete opposites in a way.”

Sally, 99, added: “You just go on with life as it is.

“We’re two very different people and don’t always agree all the time, but we’ve never argued about money.”

Asked if she had any advice for young couples getting married today, she said: “People should be more tolerant of each other.”

The pair met in hospital in the early 1930s when Denis visited his cousin Kathleen, who was one of Sally’s friends.

They were married in south London and lived with Denis’s parents before buying a house in 1936.

It was a three-bedroom, semi-detached property that cost just £660 – resulting in a monthly mortgage payment of less than £4.

The same year Denis started working for the company that built Hurricanes – one of the planes that won the Battle of Britain in 1940.

Before their marriage Sally worked as a commercial artist designing advertisements for companies.

The couple moved house a total of eight times before settling in Pennington following Denis’s retirement about 30 years ago.

They still enjoy a happy and healthy retirement after Sally overcame a battle with cancer shortly after moving to the village.

Her husband managed to steer clear of hospital until he was 90, when he fell and broke his jaw.

Today they have been married for longer than almost anyone else in the UK.

The current record is held by Ralph Tarrant, 107, and his wife Phyllis, 101, of Sheffield, who have been together for 77 years.

Sally and Denis have a son, Craig, 65, and two grandsons.

They celebrated their anniversary by going on a trip to the Isle of Wight.