Best friends have taken passport photos together for 50 years

By Louis Dargavel Corbett via SWNS

Meet the best friends who have taken passport photos together every five years for 50 years.

Retired probation officer Keith Laughton, 60, and paramedic Martin Dowle, 60, started the tradition when they were 10.

They climbed into a photo booth in Woolworths to memorialize their first ever trip into Lincoln alone.

Completely by coincidence, the pair found themselves at Woolworths again five years later, and decided to turn their photo visits into a tradition.

They've done it every five years since, and on July 20, the pair - now 60 - will take their 50th anniversary pic.

Keith said: "We’ve always been close.

"I mean there are months that we don’t speak but all I have to do is pick up the phone and we pick up where we left off.

"That’s just fifty years of friendship.

"It’s a special relationship.

"I have the full set of photos in an envelope with a sign saying 'do not destroy.'

"I don’t think Martin has them all, so I sent him a collage of them all a few years back."

The pair met when they were eight when Keith went to introduce himself to Martin after he moved to his village of Bardney, England.

While Keith still lives there, Martin now lives in London.

Keith reminisced on the times the pair lived together, from brewing beer in Martin's back garden at 15, to sharing a tent at Glastonbury.

Martin is the godfather to Keith's youngest daughter.

The pair will take their next photo during a visit to Skegness.

Keith said: "We both get excited and start planning it, and then we realize it means another five years has gone by.

"I would describe Martin as a lovely laid back guy. Nothing phases him and his job isn't something I could of ever done.

"Sometimes its almost as if he’s horizontal, with how relaxed he gets."

Keith joked about their last photo together, and added: "The 55th photo was interesting because we went to the local train station - quite late at about 8 P.M.

"As we got there, it was packed, and a train was just coming in, so we sulked in the shadows for about 20 minutes and sneaked into the photo booth.

"We must have looked a bit strange - two fully grown men sneaking into a photo booth together.

"We did have a joke where if one of us passes away, we would hold a photo or cut out of the other one to keep it up - hopefully that won’t be any time soon though!"