When Bradley Alcock received a comment on his Instagram photo calling him “handsome” he was flattered - but thought little more of it.
The flirty comment had been left underneath his photo by 29-year-old Samatha Garcia, who Bradley had followed for some time.
But living 5,225 miles apart, Bradley, from Coventry and Samantha, from Mexico, had never met.
“A few days after she commented on my photo, I sent Samantha a message and said hello,” Bradley, 24, told The Mirror.
The pair started chatting and realised there was a spark between them. There was just one problem - neither of them spoke the same language.
While the pair chatted in Spanish, Bradley, who works night shifts in a supermarket, was using online translator tools to try and communicate with Samantha. Still, the language barrier didn’t stop them.
“We usually spoke every day and our relationship just grew,” Bradley explained. “After about a month of texting we had our first video call.”
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Although he loved speaking to his beau on video, Bradley was still using translation tools to communicate with Samantha in Spanish.
He said: “We knew it would be easier if we could speak more naturally. I’ve always liked Spanish and Samantha gave me the motivation to actually learn.”
Determined to break down the language barrier, he hired a Spanish tutor and joined language learning website Duolingo in October 2019.
From then on, he used Duolingo almost every day and saw his tutor whenever he could.
“I used it every day for 10 or 15 minutes,” he said, adding he fit sessions in around his shifts at work. And as time passed, his vocabulary started to improve.
But when the pandemic hit and his tutor moved back to Spain, Bradley relied solely on the website to improve his language skills.
And lockdown put the brakes on another of Bradley’s plans - a trip to Mexico to meet Samantha in person.
“We planned everything for April 2020, but obviously it got cancelled,” he recalled. “I booked the trip again for October, and luckily it went ahead.”
After more than a year of speaking online every single day, Bradley and Samantha finally met in the flesh when his flight landed in Mexico City.
“It was amazing,” he said. “From the minute I stepped off the plane and went through the doors of the airport, I was excited.”
And luckily, the pair got on just as well in person as they had online.
“We were both really nervous for the first few hours, but after that we connected like normal.”
For the next three weeks, the pair travelled around Mexico where Bradley could practice his Spanish - and his skills were put to the test when he met Samantha’s family.
“They were lovely. We were constantly at her house speaking to them and watching TV. They were really nice to me,” Bradley said.
After three weeks of bliss Bradley had to leave his beau and fly back to the UK - which was more difficult than he’d anticipated.
“It was horrible. Being at the airport and saying goodbye was awful,” he said.
So as soon as he was back on UK soil, Bradley started planning Samantha’s visit to the UK as soon as they could - but more coronavirus restrictions got in the way.
“We planned for her to come for five months so she could live with me and get to know England properly,” he said.
After nearly six months apart, Samantha arrived in London in April 2021, where Bradley was eagerly waiting to collect her.
And, once they had both been grilled about Samantha’s visit by border force officials, Samantha and Bradley were finally reunited.
For the next few months, Bradley showed Samantha around the sights of the UK, and in August he took her on a caravan trip to Paignton in Devon - where he popped the question in a park filled with flowers.
“I’d been planning it for a couple of months but I was just trying to find the right time and place,” he said.
The newly-engaged pair spent another month together until Samantha had to return home to Mexico in September.
Now, the supermarket worker is planning his next trip to Mexico in Spring - when he plans to tie the knot with his beau.
Did you meet the love of your life in an unusual way? Email jessica.taylor@reachplc.com with your stories
But, even with 5,000 miles between them, Bradley’s determination to keep learning Spanish hasn’t waned - and he still logs on for Spanish lessons every day.
He joked: “I still get a badge for my achievements every month.”
