From Tsunami disaster to marriage

A couple from the UK who found love amid the horrors of the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami returned to the scene of the disaster five years on – to get married. Lydia Hewson, 35, and Andy McKelvey, 49, were specially trained police officers sent to Thailand, after the devastating tidal wave, to help with the grim task of identifying bodies.

Immediately afterwards, they went their separate ways – but eventually met up again and love blossomed.

Lydia, who was a policewoman in Cheshire, subsequently resigned from her job and moved to the South West to be with Andy, who still works for Devon and Cornwall Police.

The couple live in Hayle, West Cornwall, but returned to the very beach at Bang Tao where they first met, to tie the knot. Andy said that it seemed like the right thing to do.

"It was a very fitting place to go back to. Thailand itself is a lovely place and when we first talked of getting married I thought it was very apt.

"It's also nice to see how it has recovered."

Lydia said: "Andy wanted to get married abroad to cut out a lot of the hassle and we decided to go back to Thailand.

"We returned last November for the first time to do a bit of a recce and were delighted with the progress that has been made since the tsunami."

In the immediate aftermath of the 2004 disaster, the pair spent about a week together on Phuket island before they were evacuated amid fears of a second tsunami.

They then returned to their normal lives, but kept in touch.

A few months later, Lydia decided to take a two-year break and travel the world. She met Andy again briefly before leaving him behind for a marathon solo trek through South Africa and Australia.

Lydia kept in contact with Andy and towards the end of her travels, they met up again for three weeks in Canada where romance finally blossomed.

When she finally got back to England, she quit her job in the police and moved to Cornwall to be with him and open a bed and breakfast business.

Lydia said that going back to Thailand "just seemed the right place for us. Even though we'd only known each other for just over a week, when we were there, we lived a lifetime in that time.

"I was working alongside Andy closely, but nothing happened between us.

"It was only when we met again in Canada that our relationship was cemented and we grew very, very close.

"It is a lovely, lovely story, a unique one out of the tragedy over there."