It was my 25th Birthday on New Year’s Eve and, unfortunately, my boyfriend Paul was going to be away for the event. Paul is a submariner with the Royal Navy and actually left the country towards the end of November last year.He told me before he left that the BBC had filmed some Christmas and New Year messages from the guys back to their families and mentioned that he’d filmed a message for me, but wasn’t sure if I’d get it. The boat left on patrol and after a few sniffly nights, I started to get into the routine of Paul not being around. To give you an idea of what it’s like, we do not hear ANYTHING from the guys while they are at sea, and all that they hear from us is a 38 word kind of telegram each week. About a week after he’d gone, I got a phonecall from the BBC telling me that they’d got a message from Paul for my birthday and that they’d like me to appear on the programme live!I roped in my friend whose fiancé is on the same boat and along we went to hear our New Year messages. We had a really lovely afternoon at the BBC, and saw a few stars – we even shared a make up room with Lenny Henry! Anyway, the time came for us to go onto the set with Gaby Roslin, and to my surprise and shock horror, be witnessed by a couple of million people! Paul proposed to me at about 6pm on Millennium Eve and my 25th birthday! The only problem with his proposal was that he didn’t get a proper response from me for about two weeks and became a nervous wreck! The other problem was that we didn’t actually see or speak to each other until sometime in February – talk about having to wait for an answer! Anyway, we are now happily engaged and planning to get married next summer and when people ask me how Paul proposed, it’s surprising how many of them actually witnessed the event live!
