IT was a year that saw his life change in the most catastrophic of ways.

Yet Jay Young is ending 2011 on a high.

Along with his mum there has been one person who has been at his side since he was given the devastating news that he was paralysed from the shoulders down.

The young stuntman severed his spinal cord while rehearsing for a show in March and has since then has had to adjust to life as a quadriplegic.

But helping him through every stage of that painful journey has been his girlfriend of five years Jess Smith.

So as an extra special Christmas present Jay asked her to marry him and presented her with a stunning gold ring.

Jess said she was stunned when she opened the jewellery box on Christmas Day.

“I had asked for a pair of gold earrings so I was just speechless when I opened the box, my first thought was – that isn’t earrings!”

When she had recovered from the shock Jess, 23, accepted the proposal. “So many things have changed this year. None of what has happened this year you could have predicted but we have lots to look forward to now,”

added Jess, a sports therapist.

Jay, 23, said: “I had been thinking about it for a while. Since the accident we have become even closer. She has stayed with me even when I was having really bad days, she was always there. I can’t imagine being with anyone else and I don’t want to be.”

Along with ending the year on a high the couple can also look forward to 2012 when Jay is set to be discharged from in-patient care in January before they hope to move into a specially adapted property in February. The couple have known each other since they were both members of gym clubs in Southampton but didn’t get together until they were both studying sport at Tauntons College in Hill Lane.

Like any nervous boyfriend Jay agonised for hours over the ring that he picked out during a shopping trip to WestQuay with his mum Mandy White.

“I really wasn’t sure and I was on the phone to mymuma fewtimes saying I needed to go and get another one but she reassured me Jess would love it. I also rang her dad to ask him first, make sure I did it properly.”

Christmas saw Jay leave Salisbury District Hospital – where he has been since being transferred from Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital in May – for the first time overnight.

He was initially treated there following the accident that happened when he fell as he rehearsed a backflip stunt at Windsor’s Legoland attraction.

Jay celebrated this Christmas with his family in Southampton before they checked into a hotel that could accommodate his specially adapted wheelchair that he operates with his chin.

It was there he popped the question to a delighted Jess.

“It has been a terrible year so many things have happened but this has ended the year on a real high for us,” she added.

n An appeal to raise money for Jay to fund specialist equipment he needs along with donations to the hospitals that have helped with his recovery was set up called Pray For Jay. Log on to prayforjay.co.uk to donate.