Jersey nurse defies terror alert and says 'I do' at Westminster

Monday 27 March 2017

A nurse who grew up in Jersey has made sure love triumphs over hate by saying 'I do' just metres from where a terrorist killed four people, and left dozens injured, in Westminster.

Octavia Bell's boyfriend got down on one knee on the Golden Jubilee Bridge to propose to the former Jersey College for Girls student on Thursday - but the terrorist attack just a few hours before almost made him change his mind.

Connor Brown, who's a Surrey paramedic, eventually decided to go ahead, to prove that life still goes on. 

He told Express: "I was working at the time the attack happened and I had several people contact me asking whether I will postpone or change my plans as I was going to do it on either the Golden Jubilee Bridge or Westminster. At first I felt like maybe it's not a good decision but then I just thought that Londoners will just get on with their day and that I shouldn't let what happened spoil months worth of planning. In the end, in spite of everything that happened, it turned out to go much better than I could have thought!"

It was a total surprise for Octavia, who now works as a nurse in London. "I was completely caught of guard and so shocked!," she recalls. " It's my favorite spot in the city and he was determined for that not to be spoiled. He had organized for us to walk along Golden Jubilee Bridge at sunset and for my friend's sister and brother to be secretly filming the whole thing. He then picked up a bunch of flowers in the middle of the bridge that had been placed by my friend's sister and pointed down to my friends who were all stood along Southbank, holding up a sign he had made saying 'Will you marry me?'."

After Octavia said 'Yes' the couple drank champagne on the Southbank with their friends and got to share their happiness with passersby. Octavia remembers: "We had so many people cheering and clapping on the bridge and people watching all along Southbank. It's so lovely to have heard the positive response people have had and we have had lots of people telling us that it shows that love will always win over hate."

On the south bank, not far from #westminster, a sense of normality. A marriage proposal. She said yes. pic.twitter.com/ogUMYi3n1a

— Steve Knibbs (@Knibbsey) March 23, 2017

One thing the couple certainly didn't expect was for the proposal to make the national news, as a journalist from the BBC happened to be on the bridge to film an interview about the attack. "Octavia asked me if I had planned this, of course I didn't! I think we were both in a complete state of shock! He just saw us and asked if he could interview us. We knew we had to let people know on social media quick as it was already making the rounds on twitter and I ended up not being able to tell all my family before we were on the morning news!" explains Connor.

After the "incredible response" their proposal has received, the couple flew to Paris to celebrate both their engagement and five years together.