A Co Tyrone couple have spoken of their ‘complete joy’ as they got engaged just a year after their world had been turned upside down by a brain tumour diagnosis.
Dara McCann, 25, received the devastating news last year, but has thankfully made a recovery and popped the question to delighted fiancée Katy Edgar in a romantic proposal on Christmas Eve.
The Omagh pair were visiting their favourite local coffee shops that they first used to meet in at the start of their relationship nine years ago.
As Katy was returning to their table in the Riverfront Coffee House with their favourite hot chocolates, Dara got down on one knee.
“It was definitely nice to get some good news for once,” Dara told MyTyrone.
“It was brilliant. I had planned to do it for a couple of years now but with what happened last year it put a spanner in the works.
“It was great to finally ask the question and even better to get a big ‘yes’.
“It literally is the complete opposite to what our lives were like last year, on a certain day we were wondering if this treatment was going to work and whether this thing was going to go away.
“Now it’s complete joy for an up and coming wedding to look forward to.”
Katy said she thought it was a joke at the beginning, but added it was an easy answer in the end.
"I felt so shocked, I would joke about getting engaged but when it actually was happening I couldn’t believe it. It was a very easy answer," she said.
"It was such a special and different way to propose and I wouldn’t have changed one bit of it if I could.
"The ring is absolutely amazing and is my style to a tee.
"Nobody can believe that Dara picked such an amazing ring but anybody who knows me knows I couldn’t decide what I want if I tried."
Dara described their Christmas Eve ritual and paid tribute to the Riverfront for providing prosecco and champagne as the celebrations began.
“On Christmas Eve we usually go to two places in Omagh, one is Serendipity so we go there for pancakes and then we go to a wee coffee shop that we started going to when we first started going out," he said.
“We always go down to the Riverfront for hot chocolate and it’s just a place that’s close to both of our hearts.
“I asked her in there when she was coming back down with the hot chocolates.
“I had rang forward to the wee woman that has worked there for years and let them know, and she couldn’t believe it.
“When I went in she had prosecco and champagne for us ready to go, it was lovely and a nice touch."
