A British soldier surprised his bride-to-be with a wedding ring he made by hand from an old penny he found in Afghanistan.
Bombardier Ben McDowell surprised his fiancee Jolene Riley with a unique wedding band that he meticulously carved while he was on tour in Afghanistan.
The 19-year-old couldn’t believe it when Ben got down on one knee, after just 10-months together, and popped the question during two-weeks of leave last month.
But she got an even bigger surprise when the 24-year-old showed her the unique wedding band he had carved from an Afghan coin using a rock, hammer and a metal file.
Mr McDowell, who serves in the Royal Artillery, beat the edges of the coin with the rock and hammer until the edges were raised, then drilled through the middle before shaping it with a metal file - a process which took three months.
She said: 'Before Ben left for his nine month tour of Afghanistan, he asked me what I wanted for Christmas.
'I don’t like him spending money on me, so I thought of the cheapest thing I could think of and asked for a penny from Afghanistan as a sentimental gift.
'That’s the only thing I have ever asked for from him, but obviously his mind went into overdrive and he thought up this amazing surprise.
'He isn’t usually the romantic type so everyone has been completely shocked by what he has done.
'He proposed as soon as we got back to his house when he got home from Afghanistan. We had been stuck in the car for hours, and it was 1.15am by the time we got home.
Miss Riley, from Sutton-in-Craven, North Yorkshire, fell for soldier Ben after the pair started talking online in June last year.
She added: 'It was undoubtedly love at first sight from the very first time I met Ben.
'I even proposed to him while he was away in Afghanistan but he said it wasn’t a proper proposal, and he wanted to do everything right.
After painstakingly carving the ring he sent it back to UK jewellers Serendipity Diamonds to be gold-plated.
Miss Riley said: 'It is just so amazing, and it means so much more to me knowing how much thought he has put into it.
'It is something unique that I can treasure for ever.
A spokesperson from Serendipity Diamonds, based in Portsmouth, said: 'Our part in this involved just a little help adjusting the ring to the correct finger size.