A WOMAN from Folkestone had a surprise when she tuned into her local radio station: her soldier boyfriend proposed to her live on air from Iraq.

Johnny Lewis’s drivetime show on kmfm for Shepway and White Cliffs Country became the unlikely setting for moment to warm the hardest of hearts when Staff Sgt Kevin McGarry rang from Basra.

Staff Sgt McGarry, 37, will be coming home in a week, as his regiment moves to Tidworth, near Salisbury.

His girlfriend, Dyane Bean, 36, lives in Cheriton, near Folkestone, and is regular listener to kmfm, so she wasn’t surprised when he rang to tell her he would be doing an on-air competition at 4.30pm last Friday.

She listened out for it, and heard her boyfriend say: “Dyane, I’ve got you here on false pretences: there is no competition.

“About a year ago our mums thought they would be cunning and get us together. What a match they have made, a match made in heaven. They always say listen to your mum and in this case the saying is right.

“What I would like to say Dyane, is will you marry me and will you be my wife?”

Listeners, DJ Johnny Lewis and Staff Sgt McGarry then had a nail-biting minute waiting for the studio phone to ring, but when it did, Dyane and Staff Sgt McGarry were united live on air.

She said: “Kevin, I love you very, very much and yes of course I will marry you.”

DJ Johnny Lewis, who has been working in radio since joining pirate Radio Caroline in the 1970s, said: “It was marvellous. I never thought I would bring people together! That’s what radio is all about.”