Couple who met online to launch 'pukka' dating website

Jul 6 2012 by Jo-Anne Rowney, Buckinghamshire Examiner

pukkadating Image 3

A COUPLE who met online have launched their own dating website in a bid to help people click.

Eight years after first meeting on a dating website, Lorraine Stevens, 40, of Cowper Road, Chesham, and partner Ian Pither, 49, decided to set up their own service so potential couples were just a click away.

The couple’s own success story inspired them to return to the world of online dating to share their experience and try and help singletons find their perfect plus one.

Now their site, PukkaDate has more than one million members and is continuing to grow with sister sites for single parents and over 40s.

Miss Stevens said: “The name Pukka is something we came up with a while ago, we were looking up words in the dictionary and it means genuine and excellent. A lot of people say is it to do with the pies or Jamie Oliver.”

Miss Stevens had just got divorced when she decided to surf for love.

She added: “I didn’t want to be on my own, but I couldn’t be bothered going to the pub just to find the wrong person. I didn’t want to hang around, the body clock was ticking. Then I read about online dating and thought why not?”

Barely a day after setting up a profile Mr Pither got in touch.

She said: “I hadn’t even filled in the rest of my profile when Ian contacted me. He had been searching for someone for a year so perhaps he felt I was new and the site thought we were a match.

“When we met we clicked straight away.”

Miss Stevens is hoping their website PukkaDate will help others to click.

She said: “It was a real taboo back then, but now 20 per cent of couples meet online. I didn’t tell anyone but then I didn’t need to as everything happened so quickly – I didn’t have any reservations. We just went in head first.

“We’re really happy to play cupid and see other people experience what we did. We’ve made it easier for people to meet someone whether that’s Chesham or further afield.”