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Bride's big day left in ruins after groom ends up in hospital bed
A couple's wedding day turned into a nightmare after the groom was involved in a horrific motorbike accident just hours before he was due to walk down the aisle.
Sweethearts Nick Fortey and Emma Byrne, who live in Corby, were due to say "I do" at St Luke's Church in Duston, Northampton, at 1pm on Saturday.
But their plans changed dramatically when 43-year-old Nick was involved in an accident just hours before, in which his leg was crushed by a car and broken in three places.
Speaking from his bed at Northampton General Hospital Nick said: "I had
hired a Harley-Davidson to ride to the wedding. It was just before 10am and I was travelling up Kingsley Road towards the Racecourse to go to the reception venue to drop some bits off when I saw a car coming out of a side street, stopped in the middle of the road. I thought the driver had seen me and was waiting for me to pass but as I did he
turned right into me and knocked me off the bike."
Nick's right leg took the full force of the impact and doctors had to perform emergency surgery to insert a metal pin into the bone and restore the blood flow.
Nick's wife-to-be Emma, 28, was at the hairdresser's having her hair done in time for the ceremony when news of her fiance's accident came through.
She said: "One of the ushers gave me a call to tell me what had happened. He's such a practical joker I didn't believe him at first but then he started to cry and I could hear sirens in the background. That's when I knew something was really wrong."
Despite the accident, Nick insisted the reception should go ahead as planned.
He said: "Within minutes of the accident I could tell by the feel of my leg it wasn't going to be good news and I wasn't going to be going to the wedding. I'm from Newport and quite a lot of family had travelled a long way and were planning to stay for the weekend. I didn't want them to go home for nothing when everything – food, hotels, suit hire – had been paid for."
Guests enjoyed home-made food from a butchers in Corby, as well as music from an ABBA tribute band.
Nick, who is now recovering well, said: "After the accident I was quite heavily sedated so I didn't really feel it much but this morning I was quite emotional – not so much thinking I'd missed the party, as thinking by this time I should be married.
"What's ironic is the last text I received before I got on the bike was one from my cousin, which read: 'Just wanted to say enjoy your day and break a leg'."
The couple, who have been together for three years, met when Emma was working for a recruitment company in Northampton and got engaged in December 2008.
They plan to reschedule their wedding once Nick is fully recovered.
Emma said: "The church, the reception venue and the hairdresser have all agreed to reschedule for free and a lot of the rest of the work was done by family and friends.
"But we're out-of-pocket 250 euros for a honeymoon to Alicante we can't go on and we're worried about the cost to our family and friends of having to re-book hotel rooms and travel."
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Weather for Kettering
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 25 C
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Wind direction: East
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