A LEYLAND man and his Irish bride-to-be, who fell in love in the wake of the Omagh bomb, are to marry this weekend.

Mark Blackwell, who moved from Leyland two years ago, will tie the knot with Omagh bomb victim Sandy Smith a year after they first met.

Mark first met Sandy at a Christian festival in Devon last year. Their romance ended after the holiday, until Mark heard about the September bombing in Omagh.

He was unable to contact the nurse at her home in Ireland and immediately gathered enough cash to go out to Omagh to find out what had happened to Sandy.

She was in intensive care, and after spending weeks at her bedside, watching her slip in and out of consciousness and undergo many operations to remove the shards of metal embedded in her legs, he proposed.

They first revealed their heart-warming story to the Citizen in February and, on Monday, went on Channel Five's It Happened To Me programme to tell the nation of their ordeal.

The couple will now say "I do" in a ceremony on Saturday, officiated by Mark's father, priest Ken Blackwell, at his church in Lancaster. Ken is a former head of technology at Balshaws High School.

Sandy will take her first unaided steps since the bombing as she walks down the aisle on Saturday.

Sandy said: "Sharing my life with Mark makes me feel that at least something positive is coming out of the tragedy.

"Seeing Mark the morning after the bomb went off changed everything. It felt wonderful to have him by my side, encouraging me."

Mark proposed in the intensive care unit of the County Tyrone hospital after deciding he couldn't wait any longer.

He said: "I decided it was best to wait until she came off the drugs so she could make a rational decision.

"A couple of days after she had the needles taken out, I popped the question. I was on my knee in the intensive care unit for more than an hour plucking up the courage to ask her."

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