A GWENT fireman and his Turkish wife flew into Britain yesterday to start their new life together - after a little help from the Argus.

The Argus exclusively revealed last month how Daren Austin, 28, a firefighter from Newport Road, Caldicot, and his wife Emel, 30, were faced with an agonising month's wait by the Immigration Service to see if she was allowed to enter Britain after they were married in Turkey on September 21.

Yesterday the happy couple's plane touched down in Heathrow Airport after Emel was granted a visa by the British Consulate in Istanbul last week.

And she faced one final delay - a chest X-ray to screen for diseases such as TB before she could enter the UK. But after that last hitch, Daren said yesterday: "We are delighted and relieved that we have finally made it back.

"It was an exhausting and worrying wait to find out if she would be allowed to come to Wales and we were quite scared. But the immigration guy at our interview was so nice to us and we didn't have any problems at all.

"The piece in the Argus about us was great and the guy told us he enjoyed reading it and said he could see we were a genuine couple."

Emel said: "I'm a bit nervous about coming to Wales, but I'm also very excited. This is my first time outside of Turkey."

Daren said: "It was a very emotional experience for Emel, saying goodbye to her family and friends at the airport, and I must admit I had a tear in my eye." The couple were married in the Turkish resort of Maramaris at a ceremony attended by the parents and friends of both.

The couple met while Daren was on holiday in Turkey two years ago and kept in touch by telephone and text messages.

Daren visited every few months, when his job with the fire service allowed him. He said: "Married life is wonderful and we are looking forward to starting a new life together in Wales."

And after arriving back home in Caldicot last night, Daren had to get straight back into the swing of things as a firefighter - he was back on duty today.

Daren said: "We've got so many people to thank, like our parents and our friends, all the blokes who covered for me at work while I was away and the fire service, who have been absolutely marvellous."