Chatterbox Des Levett let the Evening Press do the talking when he enlisted our help to pop a very special question,

Des, from Green Lane, Acomb, is a self-confessed natterer who is seldom lost for words, but when it came to asking partner Margaret Brown to marry him he suddenly got tongue-tied.

So he bought one of our special personalised Millennium Evening Press front pages and asked us to design in his proposal.

Beneath a picture of Margaret, his message to her read: "Would you allow me the honour of becoming my wife on February 23 2000?"

Much to the relief of Des (and all of us at the Press), Margaret accepted immediately.

She said: "It was a big surprise, but it's typical of Des and I think it's very romantic.

"We had talked about marriage in the past and I suppose I was expecting a proposal, but certainly not in the way he did it."

The couple are now planning to wed on Margaret's 50th birthday.

Des, 53, who runs a retail food distribution business, said: "My main asset is my voice. If there's a speech to be made then I'm making it and everybody knows me as the gas bag.

"I think Margaret would have expected my proposal to be a long drawn-out speech, but doing it through this front page speaks volumes on its own without me saying a word."

The page was ordered more than a month ago, and preparations for the wedding have already started, meaning Des had to work hard to keep the secret from Margaret before the proposal was made.

He said: "I would have asked for a refund if she had said no, but this was a great way to propose.

"Margaret has been in the Evening Press before because of her work with City of York Council's economic development unit, but this really has got her on to the front page."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.