'We made it look like a fairytale ending, but it just isn't . . .'

WITH her amazing bravery - and her fiancé's loving devotion - it was a story which inspired the country.

Former Huddersfield nurse Dawn Auty is the bride who lost both her legs in a motorbike accident on her way to church.

Steve Flood is the loving groom who married her as soon as she was well.

It was a tale of triumph over tragedy by a courageous couple.

But one year on there has been no neat, happy ending. Dawn and Steve are now battling another tragedy - the demons of drink.

Dawn, 43, and Steve, 34, are approaching their first wedding anniversary and they think the time is right to tell the world the truth.

"We want everyone to know how tough things have been for us," Dawn says.

The mother-of-two used to live in Marsh and was a nurse at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary for 20 years.

She explains: "We want people to see how hard it is for us to get over what happened. Perhaps we made it look like some kind of fairytale ending, but it isn't."

The trauma that struck the couple beggared belief.

Dawn, radiant in her satin bridal gown, was on her way to church in Blackpool to marry Steve, riding there in style on a three-wheeled motor-trike driven by a friend.

But in the last few yards her dress got caught in the bike's chain, dragging her into the mechanism. Her injuries were so bad that both her legs had to be amputated at the scene.

Steve kept a vigil at her hospital bedside, wearing his bridegroom's suit all the time.

A year-and-a-half later and at the same church they finally got married.

It looked as if the couple had found true happiness. But, in private, their lives were sliding into bitter despair.

Dawn was drinking heavily, up to a litre of vodka a day. "I'm now an alcoholic, that's the simple truth," she says. "I can be horrible and violent when I get drunk.

"I'm hard work, not physically, but mentally. Because of the drink I have very violent mood swings and become a different person. I've attacked Steve with a hammer and knives."

Steve says: "Dawn, without drink, is the most beautiful, amazing and absolutely gorgeous person. But once she hits the bottle, all hell breaks loose. I love her, but there have been times when I've hated her."

Dawn, who has two grown-up children from a previous relationship, said: "I turned to drink because it makes me forget. It makes me sleep, and then of course I can't remember that I don't have any legs."

To make matters worse, people think Dawn is a battered wife because she sometimes has visible bruises. The truth is, she says, that the bruises come from falls out of her wheelchair.

The pressure on Steve - who has a son Connor, six, and an adopted son Stephen, 12, from his previous relationship - got so bad he could only see one way out.

"I thought I could do it all, be a full-time carer, a dad and run a business. I couldn't.

"After I gave up my market stall I did karaoke in the evenings. I thought I could work three hours, twice a week and make the same money.

"One night, I was doing a karaoke gig and Dawn got drunk. A woman was in Dawn's wheelchair and Dawn was on her knee.

"I said: `I can't push both of you.' Dawn said: `We're both drunk, so you'll have to.' As I came out of the pub the front wheel went down a grid. Dawn fell out, the woman fell on her and Dawn cut an eye open.

"People saw Dawn with a shiner and nearly battered me for it. I couldn't take it any more, so that night I took a load of sleeping pills.

"I was taking them to stop the nightmares. In them I see the accident and paramedics picking Dawn's legs up.

"Luckily, Dawn realised what I'd done and called an ambulance. I woke up next day in hospital."

Then one night Dawn accused Steve of bugging the house and locked him out.

Six weeks ago they decided to try to patch things up. Steve returned.

"I've really cut down on my drinking" says Dawn. "Steve and I share a bottle-and-a-half of wine in the evenings. I've got some help around the house, but no counselling yet.

"Steve's amazing. I love him and I'd do anything for him. But if he put me through what I've put him through I'd say: `That's it, I'm off.' "

Steve says simply: "When Dawn's sober she's totally different."

* Weddings From Hell, Thursday, June 22, at 9pm on ITV1.