Going tandem! Surprise tower proposal after Paris charity bike ride

Published: 14 October, 2010
by DAN CARRIER

AFTER cycling from London to Paris to raise funds for the Spinal Injuries Association charity, trainee lawyer Helen Mathers could be forgiven for wanting nothing more than to ease gently into a hot bath. 

But instead of resting those weary limbs, she found herself swept off her feet. Her boyfriend, engineer Scott Clyne, had popped across the Channel to surprise her at the foot of the Eiffel Tower with a ring, a bottle of Champagne and a marriage proposal.

After completing the 320-mile trip in four days Miss Mathers, 24, who works at Euston-based solicitors Hodge, Jones and Allen, said: “Scott had been sneakily in touch with my work colleagues to arrange this, so at first I thought, ‘what on earth is he doing here?’ He handed me a Metro ticket and refused to say a word: he took me to a beautiful little park, went down on one knee and asked me to marry him.”

The couple met two years ago and now plan a romantic betrothal at a church in Miss Mathers’ home town of Bath.