I married the man who saved my dad’s life; FamousFeatures clients share their amazing wedding story
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Here’s recent client Sam Horton’s wonderful love story…
When Sam Horton, 30 father had a life threatening heart attack, the man who saved his life, also stole her heart, in a case of near fatal attraction.
Little did Sam from Kidderminster know, but the man who came to the rescue would also be her knight in shining armour.
Sam says: “My sister Louise Billet 29 and my dad Colin Billet 61 walked out of our family home Bewdley, Worcestershire, to walk the our dogs Chocolate Labrador Ruby 6 and German Shepard, Shep, 5.
“They only got a hundred yards when Colin suddenly fell ill. Louise ran into the house and told me what happened and I immediately called an Ambulance and went out to look after Dad, who was collapsed on the floor and looked in a really bad way. He was gasping for breath and slurring his words Louise put him in the recovery position but he was still conscious.”
Five minutes later an ambulance arrived and Emergency Medical Technician Mike Horton, 39, came to assist, with his colleagues Graham and Beck, seriously unwell Colin.
Mike says: “It looked like a heart attack to begin with, then he went into cardiac arrest where his heart actually stopped and he also stopped breathing. So I began to administer CPR and then used the defibrillator. I only used it once and he came back around, which is very rare. Only a tiny percentage of people survive a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital bed. He was technically dead for about two minutes I couldn’t believe he came back to life. I was pretty shocked to be honest, and I have done this job for a long time and seen a lot of unbelievable things.
After Mike miraculously beat the odds and was able to bring Colin back to life, he drove Colin and wife Karen, 61 to Worcester Royal Hospital where he stayed for three days to recuperate. However, Colin had to under go a serious operation, where two stents were inserted into his arteries.
Sam says: “Mike came and checked on my Dad a couple of times over the next few days and we got chatting. It turned out we had a mutual friend Lee, 40, which he found through a quick Facebook search.
“He asked for my number so he could call and check Colin was Ok, which I thought was really sweet. It was nice to see a medical professional caring so much for the people he had treated.”
True to his word, Mike called Sam the following to week to check on Colin’s progress, and he was making a speedy recovery, although he now has to take a series of tablets everyday for the rest of his life.
Sam says: “We got chatting and we really clicked on the phone, we has loads of shared interests and he said he had a nine-year-old daughter Isobel from a previous relationship, who he doted on, which I loved.
“We started to chat on the phone regularly and after a week or so we agreed to meet for a drink, at a pub in Bewdley. We had a great time and it was pretty obvious we fancied each other. I couldn’t wait to see him again and we would text message each other all day, sharing jokes and saying how much we missed each other
Sam, who works as a retail supervisor, and mike officially became a couple in August 2011 and it wasn’t long until they moved into a house together in June 2012, in Kidderminster.
The relationship went a step further when Mike proposed on Xmas day 2013 and the happy couple got married on Saturday 25th October 2015 at the Fox pub in Storton, Staffs. The newlyweds went straight to Holyhead in Wales for their honeymoon and will be visiting Venice and Rome in November.
Mike says: “It isn’t a habit to date the family of people I help, I honestly wanted to just check up on her Dad, but we ended up falling in love, and I was so happy that Colin was able to give Sam away at our wedding. But I don’t think I did anything special, I was just doing my job.
“Colin made a great speech at wedding, we joked he should have said, “I first met Mike when he was dead.” To be honest the chances of bringing someone back to life in that way and falling in love with their daughter must be a billion to one.”
Sam says: “he saved my dad’s life and he filled my heat with love. I couldn’t wish for a better man to spend the rest of my life with.”
We helped Sam and Mike share their story exclusively with the Sunday Mirror, who bid the most in our daily story auction and won the rights to use the story.
Not were Sam and Colin paid the maximum fee possible for their story, but they stayed in control of their story every step of the way.
To find out more about how to sell a story to a newspaper or magazine, see our Sell a Story page.
You can also see a few of our recent client stories below, or a list of stories that national newspapers and magazines are specifically looking for right now.
