A survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing has announced she’s engaged to the firefighter who helped save her life.
Roseann Sdoia was standing as a spectator by the finishing line when the explosion went off.
Firefighter Mike Materia rushed to help and comforted her while she was transported to hospital.
Sdoia was forced to have her right leg amputated in hospital due to the injuries she sustained, but Materia was on hand to support her every step of the way.
The pair began dating later in 2013 and are now set to get married this autumn.
Speaking to the New York Post, Sdoia said when she first met Materia, love was the last thing on her mind.
“I asked him if I was going to die. And he told me that I was going to be okay, that I only had a flesh wound,” she said.
“I was probably not the nicest to him from the get-go. I was in pain. But now we laugh and blame it on the morphine.”
Materia continued to visit Sdoia in hospital and helped her find the experts she needed for rehabilitation.
The pair struck up a friendship and Sdoia credits him for helping her recover both “physically and emotionally”.
“I knew I was starting to have feelings for him because he was so kind and caring. And he has an unbelievable smile,” she said.
The pair went on their first official date in June 2013 and Materia recently proposed with the help of their dog, Sal.
Materia dressed the pooch in a special engraved dog tag that read: “Mike wants to know... If you’ll marry him.”
Unsurprisingly, Sdoia said yes.
