Mariana was very shy. She met James in a pub and thought it would end after their first conversation, but hours later they were still chatting. 

They got on so well that James decided to come over one day to cook Mariana dinner. She was so excited, and her parents were full of questions.

It was all going well, but they still weren't an item. Four months later Mariana asked James “Do you like me?”

He replied, “I'm mad about you, I just didn't know how to tell you!”

After that, the pair couldn't spend any time apart from each other. Six months later they both moved into a flat together. 

In November 2009, Mariana skipped a period. They'd been taking precautions, but deep down she knew there was no surprise.

Scared and excited, Mariana told her family who were delighted. James looked shocked, but a week later he proposed, wanting to be a proper family.

They got married on the 23rd January 2010, and she walked down the aisle in a gorgeous dress, the perfect size for her three-month-old bump.

When she was five months pregnant, Mariana decided to visit her friend Vikki, in Cornwall.

It meant getting a 7am train, and the dark roads were still wet from the early morning rain as James drove her to station.

Mariana pushed the seatbelt below her bump, it was so uncomfortable otherwise.

In the opposite lane, there was a lorry, a school bus, and another car. It was a normal morning on the road, until Mariana looked down for a second as the car was suddenly filled with a huge flash of light.

Looking up, two glaring headlights filled the windscreen. Mariana reached out and grabbed James, and screamed as the loud crunch of metal pierced the air.

Then, there was silence.

There was metal against her teeth and plastic under her nose… what was happening? 

Wriggling around, Mariana realised she couldn't breathe. She was lying across the dashboard of their crumpled Mini.

The drivers seat was empty apart from a pile of broken glass. Where was James?

The door handle wouldn't open. Mariana tried to scream but it felt as though she was underwater. I need to save my baby.

There were grey wisps of smoke curling up from the buckled bonnet, when suddenly a huge noise sent Mariana's hands to her ears. BOOM. The car in front exploded into a ball of orange flames.

And the fire was coming right towards Mariana.

Suddenly James opened the car door and unbuckled her seatbelt. He dragged her outside to a grassy bank, and they laid there under the drizzle.

Mariana looked down, there was blood covering her hand and a searing pain to match. Her fingers had swollen up around her wedding ring, and her vision started to fade.

Suddenly she was being bundled into an ambulance. At the hospital she was told she'd fractured her finger, broken her collarbone, and was wired up to x-ray machines.

“I don't care about me, what about my baby?” Mariana demanded.

“His heartbeat seems just fine.” The doctor told her.

It turned out that another driver had overtaken cars on the other side of the road, on a hill, smashing into Mariana and James head-on, at 50mph.

When she gave birth to baby Oliver, the couple were relieved to find that he was completely ok. Their car had completely melted, but they are completely overwhelmed to be alive.

They used the compensation money to put down a deposit on a house, and Mariana always whispers to Oliver “Daddy's a hero, and you are too.”