A paramedic who saved his own life by diagnosing a deadly blood clot is getting married -- two years to the day after his story appeared in the Oxford Mail.

Matt Hillis and Anna Mason, of Maple Avenue, Kidlington, were amazed to discover their wedding date will fall exactly two years after their remarkable story appeared on our front page.

Mr Hillis, 31, a paramedic with the Berkshire Ambulance Service, based in Newbury, had been talking on the phone to a colleague when he found himself suddenly unable to breathe.

Minutes before he collapsed, he told Miss Mason, 28, a nurse, he thought it was a pulmonary embolism -- a clot which blocks an artery in the lungs.

She passed on his self-diagnosis to the medical team at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital trying to save him.

Doctors gave Mr Hillis open-heart surgery and clot-dissolving drugs.

He suffered five heart attacks and his heart stopped beating twice but his diagnosis had earned him vital time as 95 per cent of victims with a clot in the arteries do not survive.

Mr Hillis was unaware that he suffered from a rare genetic blood disorder, Factor V Leiden, which is now kept under control with medication.

The couple's wedding plans were postponed while Mr Hillis spent months recovering and then delayed further when they were saving to buy a house.

He said: "I spent four weeks in the renal dialysis unit when my kidneys collapsed and I was off work for six months. I don't want to go through that again.

"Since then, a colleague has looked at my heart and there wasn't any damage. It's a miracle."

Mr Hillis has now completed his paramedic qualifications and the pair are to marry on Friday, June 28.

Miss Mason spotted the coincidence with our report on Mr Hillis' fight for life when she glanced at the laminated copy of the front page story they keep as a reminder of his miraculous survival.

She said: "It's going to be such a special day. It might be a bit tearful too, as none of us thought Matt would make it. It's a miracle that he's here."

Mr Hillis said: "I'm the luckiest man in the world for surviving and to be marrying Anna because she's beautiful. She was amazing during my recovery."

Their wedding is at the Wesley Memorial Church, in New Inn Hall Street, Oxford, and the reception at Oxford Town Hall.