Husband's kiss woke 'sleeping beauty wife' in coma after heart attack

The happy couple embrace on their wedding day in 2000


However, the kiss was just the start of an agonising battle for Mrs Ray, who continued to drift in and out of consciousness. Her brain had been starved of oxygen when her heart stopped beating and the resulting injury left her with short-term memory loss. Mrs Ray was transferred from the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to a specialist brain injury rehabilitation unit at the Hayward Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent. She was eventually allowed home but now - almost two years later - the former IT consultant still needs ongoing rehabilitation for the brain damage she suffered.

Doctors believe her heart attack may have been caused by a blood clot after her son Alexander, now two, was delivered by Caesarean section. She had been to see a GP the night before her cardiac arrest, complaining of palpitations, but was told it was probably down to a minor infection. Mrs Ray said: 'The recovery is awful because I have so little memory. 'I would wish above all else to be well, to walk unaided and to have my memory back. 'I would love to remember what I've done each day. Andrew helps me to do everything. Without him I don't know how I'd cope.'

Mr Ray said he was just grateful his wife had survived. He said: 'She can walk quite well holding hands now, and at least our kids still have a mother and I still have a wife.'