Al Qaida bombers and Government warnings were not going to stop a Sunday school teacher enjoying her honeymoon after a Shirley Valentine-style holiday romance.

Jacalyn Boyes, 40, jetted into Turkey just hours after suicide bombers devastated the British consulate and a bank, killing 61 people.

She ignored Government warnings that people should stay away from rubble-strewn Istanbul to be reunited with her new Turkish husband, Ayhan Oghan.

Now she is trying desperately to bring him home to Brighton in time for Christmas.

Securing him a visa has been made more difficult by the fact the consulate lies in bomb-shattered ruins.

The pair, who plan to live in Brighton, met over fried eggs at a hotel in the Turkish holiday resort of ldeniz where Jacalyn was staying with friends and 25-year-old Ayhan was working as a waiter.

Within ten days of meeting, Ayhan was proposing to her on the beach and she returned early last month to wed him in Turkey.

They had earmarked her second visit in November to be their proper honeymoon.

Those plans were thrown into confusion by the explosions at the consulate and the HSBC bank in Istanbul on November 20.

Jacalyn, of Eastern Road, Brighton, was due to fly into the capital the following day to be with Ayhan, who was living not far from the centre of the city.

She said: "I was doing some shopping for an elderly lady when a friend phoned me and asked if I'd heard about the bombings in Istanbul. I suddenly felt sick. I couldn't carry on shopping.

"I immediately went to phone Ayhan but couldn't get through for a couple of hours because the phone systems were in chaos.

"Finally I spoke to him and found out he was all right though he and everyone around him were obviously very distressed.

"I'd never been to Istanbul before and everyone started telling me there was no way I should go now. The Foreign Office was saying it might not be safe.

"But I'd booked the flight and I relied on my strong faith that everything was going to be all right.

"When I got to Gatwick I went into the chapel and prayed with a Muslim lady alongside me, who was then on the same flight. There were not too many people on the plane and most of them were Turkish people returning home. But it was a wonderful flight with no problems at all."

Ayhan met her at the airport in Istanbul and they spent the night with his family, talking into the early hours of the morning about the bombings.

Jacalyn visited the wrecked consulate but felt uncomfortable, surrounded by grief-stricken mourners.

She said: "There were so many people there just crying. It was awful to see. I thought people might be resentful of me, being British, but I've never been made so welcome before."

The couple first met on June 9 after Jacalyn and nine relatives travelled to Turkey for a two-week holiday.

She said: "On the plane over, my mum said jokingly to me: 'Now don't go getting off with any Turkish men while we're out there.'

"I said: 'No, that's the last thing on my mind.' But things turned out differently. Ayhan was working in the hotel. I went over to get some eggs for breakfast one morning, looked up and saw him frying the eggs. He fried two eggs for me and I went away shaking.

"We didn't get together for a few days because we were both too shy. But one of my friends asked his name and told him I really liked him. He took me out for dinner and we found we had so much in common."

He also got on well with Jacalyn's seven-year-old son, Nur, from a previous relationship.

The night before she returned home, Ayhan took her for a stroll on the beach and proposed.

She returned for three weeks in August and for their wedding on November 4. But before that happy day came a tragedy of her own.

Jacalyn was eight weeks' pregnant with a child by Ayhan when she suffered a miscarriage a week before the wedding.

She said: "That was very upsetting for both of us. We had both been looking forward so much to having a child."

They married in a small ceremony attended by about 15 of Ayhan's family and friends, which was covered by local Turkish television and newspapers.

Jacalyn's parents were unable to make it to Turkey for the wedding but a special blessing is being planned at her church, St Mary's in Rock Gardens, Kemp Town, Brighton.

But Ayhan must first secure a visa allowing him to leave Turkey for England.

Jacalyn said: "A visa will cost the equivalent of £300. He earns £10 a day as a chef, working from 3pm to 1am, so it works out at about £1 an hour. It would take him about four months to save enough so I'm trying to put the money together to get him here sooner. Friends at church have been really supportive and I'm about a third of the way there."

Her ideal Christmas present would be a reunion on British soil with her new husband.

Jacalyn said: "It would make my Christmas to be with him again as soon as possible - if not for Christmas, then for his birthday on January 15."