Darlington couple who lived through traumatic near-death experience celebrates 50 years of marriage

11:00pm Wednesday 10th April 2013

By Alexa Copeland

A WOMAN is celebrating 50 years of marriage this week just months after her husband saved her life after a freak accident.

Pat Chamberlain, 70, was in a critical condition after slicing through an artery in her arm when she fell through a greenhouse window last August.

Her quick-thinking husband Dave, also 70, used his belt as a tourniquet to stem the blood flow and medics later praised his life-saving actions, telling him Mrs Chamberlain could have died if she bled for three minutes longer.

Now, eight months after those dramatic events in Darlington– which saw Mrs Chamberlain airlifted to Middlesbrough’s James Cook Hospital – the couple are celebrating their golden wedding anniversary with a trip to London.

Mrs Chamberlain said: “I can remember it all; I still wake up in the night sometimes thinking I’m a gonner!

“But everybody at the hospital has been wonderful and my arm has healed as well as expected; they did say it could take up to 18-months so I think it’s on course.

“I do get sharp pains and a pins and needles feeling in my fingers which they say is the nerves growing back, but other than peeling potatoes there’s not much that I can’t do.”

The couple celebrated their anniversary on Saturday with a family meal and are also travelling down south to see their daughter and spend a few days in London.

They plan is to watch a military concert at The Royal Albert Hall and enjoy a trip on the London Eye, although Mrs Chamberlain joked that she should stay away from the Shard skyscraper given her record with glass buildings.

Mr Chamberlain added: “She’s certainly been banned from going near the greenhouse.”

Mr Chamberlain also plans to buy his wife a new wedding ring as an anniversary gift, or enlarge her original one, because the swelling in Mrs Chamberlain’s fingers has meant she has been unable to wear it since the accident.

The couple, who met as teenagers, married at St John’s Church in Darlington on April 6, 1963 and have lived in the town all their married life.

They have a son, Gordon, who lives in Hurworth and a daughter, Diane, who lives in Hampshire, plus five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

The couple will also be celebrating another golden anniversary on April 20 when Mr Chamberlain’s twin sister Lily celebrates 50 years of marriage to her husband Maurice.