A DROITWICH woman who found love on a reality TV programme says the experience has changed her life.

Kate Brackley, 30, who has Down’s Syndrome, was paired with 32-year-old Simon Macgregor from Stourbridge on Channel 4’s The Undateables.

Filming took place last summer and the programme was shown on Tuesday, January 22..

Miss Brackley applied for the show through Stars in the Sky, a dating service for adults with learning disabilities, and watched the show with Mr Macgregor and more than 30 friends and family in Droitwich.

In the programme, Miss Brackley, who writes love poetry, said she “longed for a husband”.

The pair went on two dates on the show and have continued to see each other off camera.

Miss Brackley, who works at the British Institute of Learning Disabilities in Kidderminster, said: “We are arranging to meet again – we are getting on really well and will see how it goes from here.

“The show has given me a lot of confidence to get on with my life and I have a whole new set of skills.”

She said the programme’s title was controversial but the show did help counter stereotypes that people with disabilities could not or should not date.

“I did not really like the title because I want to be seen as dateable,” added Miss Brackley. “Disabled people want to be treated in the same way as everybody else and included in society and dating.”

Miss Brackley was diagnosed at birth with her condition. It leads to characteristic, physical and intellectual problems due to the person inheriting an extra copy of a chromosome but she said it had “never held me back”.

“I have so many positive things in my life,” she added. “A steady job, a home of my own and now Simon.”