A cancer survivor has described how she hopes to start a family with the man who saved her life on their first date.

Cheryl Wray first met her fiancé Stephen Kittles in 2008 through mutual friends.

It was on that date that Stephen noticed Cheryl was in pain after hearing her scream as she moved the seat back in the car they were in.

He begged her to see a doctor and a week later Cheryl, then aged just 17, booked an appointment.

She was sent for an urgent ultrascan and to her horror doctors found a pre-cancerous tumour on her pancreas which was rapidly growing.

Ex Notley High pupil Cheryl, now 22, said: “It is just crazy, if it wasn’t for him it would have turned cancerous, it was so close.

“It was small when we met but half a year later it had grown to the size of a satsuma.

“He saved my life in more ways than one, physically, emotionally, all of those ways, it is just amazing.

“He helped me all those years I have been in and out of hospital and he never once complained, he always stood by me.”