He needed three emergency operations, 26 pints of blood and several weeks in hospital after something burst suddenly in his abdomen - the day after he proposed.

His worried fiancee, Mandy Ringrose, was at his bedside throughout his three week hospital stay in Stirling.

And she was there for him when he returned home to Driffield for a convalescence which took more than six months.

Now, almost a year later, the couple have returned to Scotland to celebrate their wedding on the idyllic Loch Lomond island of Inchmurrin.

More than 70 of their friends and relatives went with them, filling the island, which has a winter population of around 10 people, plus one horse, one dog, a herd of beef cattle, a few goats and quite a lot of pheasants.

"We filled the island," said Chris, who is grateful to the doctors, surgeons and medical staff who made the wedding possible.

Chris told the Driffield Times he had collapsed the day after asking his sweetheart of 15 years to become his wife.

He had just arrived by boat on the mainland after leaving Inchmurrin, a holiday destination he has visited for more than half a century.

Mandy, a hospital administration manager, telephoned Chris' good friend of 40 years, Dr Brian Keighley, who swiftly administered emergency medical aid and made sure that Chris went to hospital immediately.
"Something had burst," said Chris. "It could have been a cyst but even now, no-one is sure what happened.

"I could have died and I needed three operations, and 26 pints of blood.

"My friends all said it must have been the shock of proposing."


Mandy added: "He was critically ill. I was told twice that he might not make it. It was 50/50. They could not find out where the bleeding was coming from."

Chris had to be resuscitated after he was admitted to hospital and a CT scan showed a clot and fluid in his abdomen so he was taken to theatre.
Surgeons found no obvious source of bleeding and no active bleeding, so drains were inserted and he was transferred to intensive care.

However, the following day the bleeding began again and he was taken back to the operating theatre where a vein was repaired, peripancreatic vessels were sutured and packs were placed in his abdomen

Then, two days later, Chris was returned to theatre for removal of the packs and his abdomen was closed with two drains in place to take away excess fluid. He remained on a ventilator until the following day, having had a total of 26 units of blood.

Mandy kept a diary during Chris' illness but she said that she cannot read it even to this day. "It was so traumatic," she said.

Chris runs Simpsons Wine Vaults from his home in Driffield and he also works part-time as a delivery driver for the frozen food supermarket chain Iceland.

"It took me six months before I could get back to lifting cases of wine and boxes of groceries," he said.

Thanks to the care and attention Chris received from medical staff in Scotland and in East Yorkshire, he recovered fully and he and Mandy returned to Scotland last week and married on Inchmurrin, surrounded by family and friends, including Dr Keighley, an election candidate for the post of treasurer of the British Medical Association.

The best man was former Full Measure landlord, Steve Kitching, and the bridesmaid was his wife, Jane Kitching. "It was a fabulous occasion," said Chris.

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