Mum’s fiancé of seven YEARS agrees he’ll finally wed her if their Facebook post goes viral… and now 30k strangers have forced him to set the date
The pair initially had to postpone their big day after the bride-to-be suffered from a life-threatening illness
KAREN Ogden was over the moon when in November 2009 her boyfriend Paul Smith proposed with a white gold diamond ring while they were chatting in bed one night.
But seven years later Karen, 36, is still waiting for her big day.
So, inspired by a Facebook post in which a mother agreed to buy her daughter a car if the request got thousands of likes, Facebook addict Karen texted Paul saying: "Name the number for us to set a date."
"God loves a trier," Paul, 45, a builder, replied.
"I want 2k comments, 4k shares and 3k likes."
Karen had 24 hours to complete the challenge – by 5pm on Friday September 2nd 2016.
Karen who works for make-up company Maëlle said: "It would be tough but I’m competitive. I’ve survived life threatening illness since Paul and I met so now I grab every opportunity.
"We’d actually planned and paid for our wedding, in Jamaica in summer 2010. But I suffer from Crohn’s and, in March 2010, started bleeding heavily.
"I needed emergency surgery to remove scar tissue from my small intestine and we had to cancel the wedding. Then, in 2014, one side of my face was paralysed by a grapefruit sized tumour on my facial nerve. The operation to remove it lasted 12 hours!"
As if that wasn’t traumatic enough, in the same year Karen returned home to find Paul unconscious on the kitchen floor – he was blue-lighted to hospital where it was discovered a tiny chicken bone from a sandwich had perforated his bowel.
Last year Paul and Karen moved from Warrington to Pembrokeshire to start a new life with their daughter Lucy, seven, and Karen’s two sons from a previous relationship Corey James, 14, and Tom, ten.
Karen said: "We love it here but Paul is starting his own business selling artificial grass and always too busy to talk wedding dates.
"I’m determined though –maybe I’m mad and the peroxide blonde in my hair has seeped into my brain. So I took a screen shot of Paul’s demands for 9000 likes, comments and shares and posted it on Facebook."
But by the time Karen went to bed on Thursday night things weren’t looking good.
She only had 64 comments – and was gutted.
Karen recalled: "Then, when I woke at 7am, friends in Australia and the US had shared it and it had gone viral.
"By lunchtime I had all the shares, likes and comments I needed. And the numbers crept up all afternoon – I just stared at my computer screen, gobsmacked."
Not all the comments were positive, however.
"You must be desperate," one said.
"You can’t force him to marry you," jibed another.
Karen said: "I didn’t care. The nasty comments added to the total and were helping get me down that aisle!"
By the time Paul returned from work Karen had 17,000 likes, 7000 shares and 6000 comments.
Karen said: "Paul was gobsmacked. ‘It’s gone mad,’ he gulped. Then he burst out laughing.
"Corey had heard all about it at school too and said: 'Mum you’re famous.'"
So Paul and Karen have finally set a date for their long-awaited wedding – August 2017 in Xante, Greece with a small group of family and friends.
Karen laughed: "I’d invite everyone who liked, commented and shared the post if I could.
"They might be strangers but it’s thanks to them I’m marrying the love of my life."