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ECHO devotee David Harvey has read every copy of his favourite paper since it was launched back in 1969...except one.

Mr Harvey, 67, and his wife Beryl even have the paper delivered while they are on holiday so they don't miss any of the local news and sport.

Yet Mr Harvey, of Somerset Avenue, Rochford, recalls a single dark day when his Echo never came.

He said: "That was sometime ago, I can't exactly remember when. But it was in the early 1980s and there was a very heavy snowfall so the lorries couldn't get out.

"That was the only day the Echo has not been delivered to us."

David still works part time as a senior manager for retirement home specialists, McCarthy and Stone, and he remembers the first time he set eyes on the Echo.

He said: "It was launched with a free handout inside, I think August or September of 1969 and when they asked if we wanted to carry on with deliveries we said yes'.

"It was the first daily, local paper which reported all the news as it happened and we have never cancelled a delivery."

On honeymoon in 1965 the Harveys met sports reporter Nigel Fuller.

Four years later they were seeing his byline and enjoying his stories in the Echo - and more than 40 years later they are still friends.

David said: "He encouraged us to contact the paper about how long we've been reading the Echo." Today the Harveys have three daughters who made regular appearances in the paper.

Mr Harvey added: "They were involved in the Southend carnivals and they did a lot of dancing so we always looked for them in the paper. As a builder I've always been interested in buildings and I can remember the story about Montague's in Hamlet Court Road."

With so many stories to choose from in almost 40 years they struggled to single out the most memorable.

However, as Rochford residents they did point to the story of Norah Trott who was murdered in 1978, in Rochford.

Only in 2004 was her killer, Wayne Doherty, caught and convicted and the Harvey's followed the story in Echos across a quarter of a century.

David added: "I will not say Beryl and I fight to get the paper, but it doesn't spend long on the door mat or in the letterbox before one of us grabs it."

12:25am Saturday 5th April 2008

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