LOVE was definitely in the air for Colin Norris and Andrea Edwards when they got engaged 3,000ft in the sky after beating a brain tumour together.

Mr Norris popped the question on an exhilarating gliding flight with his Hungarian-born girlfriend after she stayed strong during his harrowing battle against illness.

The couple met as awestruck lovebirds on a college course but soon realised their relationship was forever when Mr Norris collapsed in the bathroom with a near-terminal condition.

Doctors gave the 47-year-old two weeks to live but Ms Edwards refused to let her future husband go, giving up Open University courses to support his 24/7 struggle for survival.

Now that he has pulled through Mr Norris, of Owls End, Bury, near Ramsey, wanted to make their engagement something to remember.

So he got the pilot at Peterborough and Spalding Gliding Club’s open day on Sunday (August 8) to pass her a ring while he flew alongside her and uttered the words: “Will you marry me?” via a radio link.

Luckily the 31-year-old bride-to-be said yes, meaning their two-year-old son Alfie will see his parents tie the knot at a joyous ceremony along with Ms Edward’s eight-year-old son Ryan.

Mr Norris said: “She has been my rock. After everything she has done for me, I wanted to make a decent woman out of her. I can’t sing her praises enough.”

The happy couple knew they were set for a blissful future together after getting together on an engineering course at Huntingdonshire Regional College in 2005.

But they nearly hit the rocks two years later when Ms Edwards returned home one evening to find her husband collapsed on the floor.

After tests at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Mr Norris was told he had just a fortnight to live but Ms Edwards was having none of it.

She researched the condition in detail and suggested treatments that would work as he underwent chemotherapy sessions at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

When doctors suggested radiotherapy, Ms Edwards unearthed evidence of side effects which Mr Norris took on board.

He credits his fiance with saving his life.

A grateful Mr Norris said: “Many people faced with that situation would have walked away and I wouldn’t have blamed them.

“However Andrea stuck through it with me until I came out the other side. She was so supportive and all her own studies went out of the window.

“When you have found the woman you really love, it all makes sense.”