Life is full of coincidences but the future of sweethearts Tom Sullivan and Nichola Radcliffe was clearly written in the stars.

The couple met on a dating website in April last year but fate was already pulling the strings.

It was back in 1985 that tragedy struck Nichola’s mum and dad Tim and Yvonne Radcliffe.

The Holmfirth couple lost baby daughter Hannah to cot death at eight months old and over the next few years devoted much of their spare time to fundraising for a charity they set up, Huddersfield Babies At Risk.

In 1987 Mr Radcliffe organised a raffle and offered a £250 travel voucher as a prize.

Tim was pictured in the Examiner presenting the voucher to a beaming James Sullivan. Mr Radcliffe hadn’t met him before and never saw him again. Mr Sullivan died in 2013 aged 56.

Fast forward three decades from the raffle and the yellowing newspaper cutting was found again last week by Mr Sullivan’s widow Sandra.

And, suddenly, an amazing coincidence was revealed. Mr and Mrs Sullivan’s son Tom was engaged to Mr Radcliffe’s daughter Nichola.

And, poignantly, the couple are expecting their first child in December.

Mr Radcliffe, 64, said: “Never in our wildest dreams did we think anything like this could happen.

“I never gave much thought to the lucky chap who won the £250 voucher, a good sum of money back then. I had never met him before and never met him again and I just assumed he’d gone off on a nice holiday.

Tim Radcliffe (centre) with his daughter Nichola and her boyfriend Tom who's late father was sold a winning raffle ticket by Tim in 1987.

“Then it was just last week that Tom’s mum came across the cutting when she was clearing out some stuff.

“She’d met us before and recognised me straight away. It’s just an amazing coincidence. I didn’t believe in fate before. Maybe I do now.”

Tom, 31, said he was astonished when his mum sent him the Examiner cutting.

“It’s just surreal,” he said. “I was struggling to get my head round it.”

Tom recalled that the family heard they’d won the raffle while on holiday in Ibiza and later used the voucher for a trip to France.

“It’s like Tim sold his daughter to my dad for £250,” joked Tom. “I want my money back!”

Tom and Nichola, 33, are now planning a wedding for summer 2017.