TELLING LIVES

Pauline's Story

Once in a while you meet someone whose kindness and humour shine out in a world which can sometimes seem selfish and cruel - Pauline Preston is one of those people.

Pauline didn't have the easiest start in life. Life had been a struggle for her dad, who was partially paralysed by a stroke he suffered at the age of 29. Money was tight when Pauline came along in 1941, and she was born with a congenital defect - Klippell-Feil Syndrome - which means she has a very short neck and is unable to bend or turn her head. As a child she had to deal with the taunts and jibes of other children.

Pauline and her brothers Brian and Howard were still little when their mum left home: "She just packed up and left, not even thinking what was going to happen to us."

The family struggled along with the help of neighbours and her older stepbrothers, Jack and Bill, but her Dad really couldn't cope with the pressures of earning a living as a disabled single parent.

When Pauline was just five years old, welfare officers decided it would be best if she entered the care of Barnardo's.

"I didn't know why I was there. I missed my family and was sad the whole time. My stepbrothers would come to see me and we'd have days out. I'd think they'd come to take me home, but I always had to go back at the end of the day."

At 16 she moved back home to West Bromwich to live with Jack and his wife Gwen. She still appreciates the love and generosity they showed, but she wanted to make her own way in the world. People would mistakenly assume that because Pauline looks different from other people, that she would be less intelligent too and unable to look after herself.

They couldn't be more wrong.

Pauline got a job in a factory and found her own flat. And in 1979 she met Robert and fell in love.

"He was a labourer in the same factory," she explains. "He'd come round every morning sweeping up, and then one day I nearly fell over his rubbish - that was the first time we spoke."

"He asked me out three times and twice I refused. No-one had ever asked me out before! When I finally agreed I was so nervous I didn't think he'd turn up." Rob did turn up, and the date was a great success. Two years later the couple were married and they've been happy together ever since.

Rob has epilepsy, and Pauline feels that disability has played a part in bringing them together. "We both understand how it feels to be treated differently and laughed at, so we've always been completely open and honest with each other. We've got no secrets, we trust each other completely."

Rob and Pauline moved to Hull in 2000 to be closer to friends. They love the city and it's been a happy time, but a testing time too. Rob was diagnosed with cancer a year ago and he is still battling the disease. "There's been times when we didn't think he'd make it," says Pauline.

But their love for each other only grows deeper and gives them greater strength. The couple renewed their wedding vows in the chapel of Princess Royal Hospital last April.

"He's brought me happiness and I'd do anything for him."

Pauline still sometimes has to deal with people's fear and prejudice about her looks, but she has the strength and dignity to deal with it: "I just tell them that I'm special and there's no-one else like me."

"I think we're all special," she says.

Pauline's story, and those of many other local people can be seen and heard on the Telling Lives section of the BBC's website.