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| Happy: Lee has found love with the nurse who cared for him after ex-wife Kate, laced his curry with antifreeze for a £250,000 life insurance payout |
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A husband who was left blind after being poisoned with antifreeze by his former wife is to marry the woman who nursed him back to health.
Lee Knight, 41, suffered liver failure and was left fighting for his life in a five-month coma after wife Kate laced his curry with the liquid in April 2005.
But love blossomed in hospital as dialysis nurse Jackie Evans spent hours each week caring for Lee after he emerged deaf and without his sight.
Jackie was among the team who looked after Lee during the long hours on a dialysis machine in the University Hospital of North Staffordshire as he waited for a transplant to replace the kidney destroyed by the attempt to kill him.
At first Jackie was only able to communicate with her patient by tracing the outline of words with her finger on the palm of his hand.
However a friendship developed between them -and their unusual way of talking to one another soon became their language of love.
Now the happy couple are planning their wedding at Newcastle-under-Lyme Register Office on May 7, followed by a reception at the Moorville Hotel, Cellarhead, near Stoke-on-Trent.
'I'm a very lucky man,' Lee told the Sunday Mirror. 'I'm lucky to be alive and I'm lucky to have Jackie. Out true love is our bond and our strength.'
The big day is the latest piece of good fortune which has helped Lee re-build his shattered life. He now has a new kidney successfully donated by younger brother Michael, who is an agency worker in JCB's Ram Shop.
He has also regained most of his hearing thanks to a cochlear implant and is hopeful that one day he will be able to undergo an operation to restore some his sight.
His former wife Kate tried to kill Lee for his £250,000 life insurance to pay off spiralling debts she had run up while her husband worked overtime as a team leader on the factory floor of the JCB digger plant at Rocester, Staffs.
After the jury heard how she laced her unsuspecting husband's curry with anti freeze, Kate was convicted of attempted murder in 2008. She was jailed for 30 years and ordered to serve at least 15 years before being able to apply for parole.
At home in Meir Park, Stoke-on-Trent, Lee said: 'Jackie made great efforts to talk to me by writing words with her finger over my hand. I knew then she was a very special lady.
'I was on dialysis for four hours three days a week and even when she was working in another part of the dialysis unit Jackie always found time to come and check on how I was doing.
'When I left hospital I invited Jackie out for a Chinese meal as a thank you for all she had done for me - and our romance took off from there. After what has happened to me I never thought I would ever find love again.'
He added: 'I really feel I'm getting my life back and I'm so thrilled that Jackie will be sharing it with me.'
Jackie, aged 45, said: 'Lee has been incredibly brave throughout all the years of surgery and treatment. His determination to survive and beat all the odds has been amazing and I'm so proud of him.'
Andrew Brindley, one of Lee's former JCB workmates, said: 'It's absolutely fantastic to see how Lee has come from where he was to where he is now. His friends are extremely proud of what he has achieved and we are all very happy for him.'
DAILYMAIL
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