LUCKY turkey hen Cranberry has been saved from the Christmas chop in the nick of time after being matched with lovesick male Bernard.

Bernard had recently lost his mate and was pining for her, when his owner Gemma Ramshaw set about to find a new hen to keep him company.

Her search took her to Judith Dryden at Murton Moor Farm, in Murton, east Durham, where the problem was solved and Cranberry was picked out, just as she was due for slaughter for the Christmas table.

Ms Ramshaw, of Houghton-le-Spring, said: “We bought six fertilised turkey eggs earlier this year and two of them hatched – a male and a female called Bernard and Cranberry.

“Cranberry died recently and Bernard has been beside himself.

"I tried a few rescue centres to see if they had any turkeys to keep him company, but there were none available.

“So I called Judith, where we normally buy our Christmas turkeys, to see if I could get a live one.”

She added: “Bernard is absolutely delighted she was able to help him.

"He is really excited with Cranberry Mark Two.

“She doesn’t realise how close she came to being someone’s Christmas dinner.”

Mrs Dryden, who rears and processes turkeys, told The Northern Echo yesterday: “I often get requests from people for a live turkey and I usually say no, because they want to slaughter them themselves and don’t have the facilities or training that we have to do the slaughtering.

“When this request came we said no, but then Gemma explained what had happened and that Bernard was pining for his mate.

“I needed to count up how many orders I had and how many turkeys I still have live."

Mrs Dryden added: “I let Gemma know I would keep her one, but it had to be picked up at the weekend because Monday was when I did the last of the slaughtering. We were joking that Cranberry will be eating Brussels sprouts this Christmas.”