Kent and New Jersey pen pals meet up after 50 years

Two women who were set up as pen pals by an American TV programme and a UK magazine in the 1970s have met for the first time.

Jane Bean from Sittingbourne in Kent and Debbie Houschild from New Jersey in the US have written to each other for five decades.

They met in person in August for the first time when Ms Houschild travelled to London.

Ms Bean told BBC Radio Kent that she would “never say never” to a return trip, while Ms Houschild said she would “love to come back”.

Ms Bean said: “It just felt so normal, natural, like we already knew about each other.

“It was just like meeting up with any of my other old friends.”

She said Ms Houschild brought her gifts from the US including a Bay City Rollers band t-shirt, which she “was absolutely mad about when we first started writing”.

Ms Houschild started sending letters to Kent after the children’s programme Big Blue Marble invited viewers to sign up to receive a pen pal.

Ms Bean believes she was connected to Ms Houschild via children’s magazine Look-in, but “can’t remember” who wrote to who first.

“It was early ’70s, so even the thought of going to somewhere like the States was a pipe dream,” Ms Bean said.

She added: “I just remember this awful airmail stationery that my mum used to get for me that was like writing on tracing paper.”

As teenagers, it was “fun to find out” about each others music tastes, favourite actors, and boyfriends, according to Ms Houschild.

Ms Bean said she once called the international operator when her parents were not home to try and find Ms Houschild’s number, but was put through to her grandmother, who was her neighbour.

Ms Houschild said: “It was a very pleasant surprise, of course, but I was so surprised.”

It has been “harder to catch up” as adults, Ms Houschild said, but the pen pals have “always kept up some way”.