Bride and groom's weight loss journey ends in tragedy

It was an awkward moment on a plane that triggered UK couple Pete and Kathie's decision to lose weight together. When the in-flight meal service began, Pete, 48, was horrified when his tray table wouldn't make it past his stomach.

"I’d spent 13 years as a delivery driver for a local Indian restaurant, and the midnight masalas had really taken their toll," Pete says in an interview on The Mirror.

He'd known that he was overweight, but had never considered just how bad it had become.

"When Kathie saw that the tray couldn’t get past my belly, she took my hand and very gently told me she was worried about me. I was bit taken aback, but I knew in my heart of hearts that I couldn’t go on like this."

"We’d been together for 30 years but it hadn’t taken me that long to realise Kathie was always right," Pete jokes.

"I couldn’t believe it when I stepped on the scale and saw that I’d ballooned to almost 22 stone (139 kilos). I was mortified, but Kathie was quick to support me. 'I love you, we’ll do this together,' she told me."

Over the years, Kathie too had gained weight and wanted to lose about 5½ stone (34 kilos). When Pete would come home from his night-shift at the Indian restaurant, he’d bring back her favourite korma with some onion bhajis and they’d sit and eat together late at night -- Kathie exhausted from her shift as a nurse.

On Friday nights Pete and Kathie would frequently have friends round for feasts where pizza, garlic bread, dips, kebabs and puddings were menu favourites.

"We enjoyed those nights, but once we joined Weight Watchers, we worked out we were eating about 10 days’ worth of food in one sitting," Pete says.

On their new meal plan, the couple was delighted to start seeing the results.

Pete decided he wanted to do something special for Kathie and so, with their 25th wedding anniversary coming up, he asked her to renew her vows with him.

"I wanted to show Kathie how much I appreciated how supportive she always was, so, in the middle of a family party, I asked her to marry me... again! It was a lovely moment, with the whole family clapping as she hugged me and agreed to renew our vows."

The excited husband booked a surprise holiday to Bulgaria in August 2017, and the happy couple renewed their vows in the sunshine overlooking the water.

Three months later, tragedy struck.

Kathie began to feel chest pains.

A concerned Pete raced her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with infected gallstones. However, after a routine operation, Kathie was allowed home to be cared by her devoted husband.

"I breathed a sigh of relief when she came out of surgery," says Pete. "She was still the same old Kathie, although a little weak. I took her home and told her to rest while I busied myself looking after her, ready for our lives to return to normal."

Kathie seemed to be recovering well but, two days after the surgery, she collapsed on her way to the bathroom.

"I was cooking dinner when I heard her call out my name," Pete says.

"My son Perry and I rushed to her side. I could tell as soon as I reached her that something was wrong, because her voice was slurred.

"We tried to lift her up, but Kathie simply smiled up at us before passing away in my arms."

At just 50 years' old, Kathie had died due to complications from surgery.

Pete was grief stricken.

"We buried her on my 50th birthday, so I could spend one last birthday with her," he says.

The family was rocked by the loss of a beloved wife, mother and grandmother and Pete says there isn’t a day that goes by where he doesn't feel that loss.

However, Pete was determined not to throw his health to the wind and turn to junk food for comfort.

Instead, he's continued to stay healthy in what started as a journey alongside Kathie.

"Sometimes I’m tempted to go off the wagon, but I’ve come so far and I hear Kathie’s voice in my head, spurring me on," he says.

"I have to keep at it for her. It was Kathie’s encouragement that got me here, and I’m determined to keep off the weight in her memory and make my beloved wife proud."