A happy ending for this opera-loving romantic

The optimistic Romeo has been handing out flyers in Ely

A lonely heart will finally be reunited with the "beautiful lady" he met during a night at the opera - but who he lost touch with after getting his own number wrong.

Jim Connelly, from Letchworth, Hertfordshire, had a chance encounter with his new friend at the Royal Opera House, but at the end of the night he accidentally gave her the wrong contact details.

To make matters worse, he also forgot her name, but he did remember she was from Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Attempting to find the mystery woman, he took to social media and the streets of Ely, handing out posters with his picture and phone number on.

Mr Connelly said his heart "was lifted 100 miles" when his new friend got in touch

He told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire they had met at the opera after she asked him to take a photo of her. The pair, who were both on their own, started talking, and she asked him to sit next to her.

"We got on really well," he said. "I'm a plonker for getting my number wrong and it was eating away at me. I knew as soon as I left.

"I couldn't get her out my head so I thought I was going to do something crazy and try to find her."

'My heart was lifted'

Mr Connelly's daughter posted an appeal on Facebook, stating that although it was a "long shot... God loves a trier".

He said: "I knew she lived in Ely - she said it was the Ship of the Fens.

"Then yesterday the beautiful lady contacted me. A friend saw the post and we are going to meet up again.

"It was amazing and my faith in social media is restored. It does work sometimes, and my heart was lifted 100 miles."

Mr Connelly said the only thing he still had to do was to take down the posters he had put up across Ely and which had resulted in "a few weird calls".