For 14 years, Stan Beaton kept a message by his late wife Ruby on his answering machine.

He described in an ITV interview how "when I would feel low I would ring my own phone from my mobile just to hear Ruby's voice. It just lifted me that little bit."

But during an upgrade last year, Virgin Media unwittingly deleted the recording, leaving Beaton, from Mirfield in West Yorkshire, devastated.

After trawling through countless hours of messages, technicians were finally able to provide him with a CD copy of Ruby's voice, which he could store safely.

He described his delight when he first heard it had been found:

"The very first word (on the message) is sorry and I was shouting down the phone, you've got it, you've got it. And when it actually did finish. I was in tears of happiness. I couldn't believe it."