WHEN Tracey Darwell and Trevor Caine both suffered heart attacks they never expected to find love in their cardiac rehabilitation class.

But last June Mrs Darwell, aged 50, and Mr Caine, aged 56, met and today they will tie the knot at Mere Hall Register Office, Halliwell, following a whirlwind romance.

Both were struck down by heart attacks within days of one another, Mrs Darwell on June 3 and Mr Caine on June 14, and found themselves at the exercise and information sessions.

Mrs Darwell, a healthcare assistant in the delivery suite at Royal Bolton Hospital, said: “I didn’t want to go. I said, I’m 50-years-old, I don’t own trainers and joggers.

“I decided to try it once to see if I liked it. Anyway, I loved it.”

After spending a week in hospital, where he had a coronary stent fitted, Mr Caine started attending the class of 14.

He said: “We just started chatting, like you do. There wasn’t just me and Tracey. Nothing happened, we were just chatting away.”

They hit it off and love blossomed, with the couple getting together a month later.

Mr Caine, of Prestolee Road, Stoneclough, who has three daughters, said: “It was the best thing that ever happened to me, as daft as it sounds.

“I couldn’t be happier. She never stops laughing. It’s everything about her, she’s just fantastic.

“It’s like we’ve been together for years. We didn’t see why we should wait.

“We’ve both had heart attacks, why wait 18 months, two years?”

Mrs Darwell, from Little Lever, who has two sons, said: “My husband died 10 years ago on Valentine’s Day of a heart attack.

“I always said I would never get married again. I wasn’t looking for anybody.”

But after meeting Mr Caine, the mother-of-two had a change of heart.

She said: “We just get on together, I love him to pieces.

“I told my friends, I’ve met this man, I’m in love, God sent him to me.

“I’m going to marry him.”

The pair are now looking forward to a long and happy future together after their heart attacks, which came as a shock. Following this afternoon’s ceremony in front of 40 friends and family, seven bridesmaids and two best men, they will honeymoon in the Lake District and then move into a bungalow in Little Lever.

Mrs Darwell said: “Our lives are just beginning after they both nearly came to an end.

“Now two hearts beat as one.”