Sweethearts Steven Dewhirst and his fiancee Cathy Sykes defied death to find true love at an exercise class for people with disabilities.

The couple are still to set a date for the wedding but family and friends are delighted with their news – and the Telegraph & Argus helped play Cupid.

Mr Dewhirst, who is 46 and lives in Wibsey, spotted a story in the T&A about the class at Wibsey Rugby Club and decided to go along after surviving double pneumonia and heart surgery that doctors warned could kill him.

It took him five months to recover from the op after medics found an abscess on his aortic heart valve and it left him with neurological damage. It was also thought he suffered a stroke.

Despite doctors saying he would never walk again, he persevered to beat the odds. To build up his fitness, he joined the Wibsey exercise club and met Cathy who also had a survival story.

When she was 16, she was crossing a road in Brighouse when she was struck by a car, breaking her back and crushing her internal organs, which left her in a wheelchair. Her friend was killed outright in the collision.

Miss Sykes, now 45 and living in Queensbury, is a volunteer at St Luke’s Hospital where she helps feed elderly patients and it was her who popped the question on Leap Day.

Mr Dewhirst said: “I said yes straight away. Cathy is so bubbly. By nature I’m a very quiet person but she brings out the best in me. We are very happy.”

His proud mum Maureen Dewhirst said: “We are all thrilled about Steven and Cathy. He was so ill at one point I thought I was going to lose my son but I’ve still got him and now I’m getting a daughter-in-law as well. She’s a lovely girl. The first thing I knew about the engagement was when Steven rang to say he was buying a ring.”

Mrs Dewhirst said of her son’s illness: “I’d come back from a few days away and he had been really short of breath, I put it down to anxiety but when I saw him it was clear he was very ill. His body shut down in the ambulance in front of me. It was all so quick. I thought that was going to be it but he fought on and now he and Cathy have a wonderful future to look forward to.”