A KELTY woman has made the “most important catch of my life” by proposing to her future husband at Lochore Meadows.

This journey between Diana (Danny) Hunter and Andy Paterson, from Ballingry, involves an axe to the head, love, and even a bottle of moonshine, with a wedding now in sight for the two Pokémon-daft Meedies Running Club members.

They met at the club four years ago and evolved from being “just really good friends” to falling for one another.

Danny, 42, popped the question last Monday night in a room packed with their “extended family” of running clubmates, many of whom realised Danny and Andy, 48, were meant to be together before the couple themselves.

“There wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” Danny told the Times.

“I just said the truth in front of family, basically.

“It went way better than I could have hoped for. I was able to say everything I wanted to say, but the one thing I forgot to do was go down on bended knee - I somehow forgot that part!

“No one had any doubts over what Andy would say or that we are meant to be together.

“I’ve watched that video of me proposing so many times and I’m still greetin’ every time.

“People say not to propose in public places, but I knew what Andy’s answer was going to be. You don’t ask that question if you don’t know what the answer will be.

“It was just perfect. It was 50 really good friends in a room; people we have known for years.

“They have all watched us grow over the years from being best friends to what we are now.”

Andy had no idea what was to happen at the group last Monday, a night he was tempted to miss, he revealed.

“I was blindsided,” he said.

“I had no idea Danny was going to do this at all or what she had been planning.

“Funnily enough about 45 minutes before we went to the club I was having a snooze and was tempted to leave it and take the night off running. I was a bit tired, but Danny convinced me.”

After meeting at the running club, the pair’s friendship blossomed during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to Danny cooking Christmas dinner for them in 2020, and once again a year later; the Christmas Day involving moonshine.

Danny explained: “I had been to the Edinburgh markets and I bought some moonshine there for us. I hadn’t realised quite how strong it was.

“The Christmas dinner was half-cooked and I had a couple of glasses by the time he arrived at my house. I opened the door and as he walked in I just said, ‘I love you!’, and he said, ‘I love you too!’ “That was that.”

As their relationship grew, Danny realised that proposing to Andy was of great importance to her after his “dice with death” in July last year.

“He was outside in the garden trying to chop down a tree when he managed to hit himself in the head with an axe,” Danny stated.

“It sprung back and hit him in the head, and he needed to go to hospital.”

After the scare, Danny knew she “had to put a ring on him”, so she made strides to do just that.

She had been waiting for the right time to pop the question, but instead decided to act sooner rather than later and made the decision to propose at the club where they met.

The ring was placed within a Pokémon trading card tin to make the moment even more special.

Danny said: “I got the Pokémon ball from a friend of mine’s son; it’s an old trading card tin, so I had to buy it off the son - who was very good at bartering! We settled on a fiver!

“Andy and his son had played Pokémon Go for years and when he and I got together, I thought it was the lamest thing I’d ever seen! I won’t lie.

“I started talking about it at work and there were a lot of people who played it as well, so I downloaded it and within three minutes I was hooked!”

With the proposal super effective, the pair have now set a provisional wedding date of June 10, 2028, allowing Danny time to complete her Physics PHD at Heriot-Watt University.