Sheffield romantic who hired a BILLBOARD to search for partner finds his ‘soulmate’

Mark Rofe, who lives in Sheffield city centre, shelled out £425 earlier this year for a 3m by 6m poster beside a busy Manchester road inviting potential suitors to get in touch.

The 30-year-old took the drastic step after growing disillusioned with dating apps, and the poster – which featured a photo of him stretched seductively above the words ‘Date Mark’ – enticed nearly 2,400 people to ‘apply’ for a romantic rendezvous via the website he created.

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Despite the deluge of responses, most of which Mark says were genuine, it remarkably took just three dates to find the woman for him – and they have now been together for more than six months.

Going public about the relationship, he tweeted a photo of himself in front of the billboard and another of him with the lucky woman, who is a bit more publicity shy than him and does not wish to be named, captioned ‘how it started’ and ‘how it ended’.

“When I put the billboard and DatingMark.co.uk website up I was ideally looking for someone who has a good sense of humour (read able to put up with my awful jokes), intelligent, and obviously there has to be a physical attraction, and I feel I lucked out because not only did I end up meeting someone like that, they happened to like me back too. She's a couple of years younger than me, and is a writer,” he said.

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Mark, who recently quit his career in marketing to start a Christmas tree delivery business, told how his new partner had tried to apply for a date via the website but it was playing up at the time so thankfully she persisted and messaged him via social media.

“I saw her message and looking through her social media I saw that she had a great sense of humour and thought she could be someone I'd get on well with, and it turns out that was right!” he said.

The couple had booked to go to Spain on their first holiday together recently but cancelled due to the pandemic and went to Bournemouth instead.

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Mark describes taking out the billboard as ‘one of the scariest things I’ve ever done’ but says his partner found it ‘hilarious and ballsy’, and he now considers it money well spent.

"I'm not sure she was keen on the choice of font I used on the billboard, which was Comic Sans. I've already joked that if we ever did get married that's the font I'm using for the wedding invites!” he added.

"I hope it gives hope to other average-looking men out there too. It's always an interesting story when someone asks the question of 'how did you meet?'

“I expected to have to do more dating, but when I found someone I really liked I didn't see the need to go and date more people.”