'I wished that 7/7 had killed me'

Traumatised after surviving the London bombings, Dan Biddle wanted to end it all, but a mistake led him to find love

- JESSICA BOULTON

Gem Biddle didn't need to have a second date to know Dan was the man for her. She felt it even before she first saw him - nervously waiting outside her house ready to take her for lunch.

They had been messaging for weeks after she accidentally friend-requested him on Facebook, having mistaken him for a pal of the same name.

“It was his smile,” Gem, 42, says. “He was gorgeous and I was a smitten kitten.”

Dan felt the same and the pair have just celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary.

But it's what Gem doesn't tell you about this first date that really says it all about their relationship.

For as well as being her funny, charming husband, Dan Biddle, 46, is also the most injured survivor of 7/7 – the 2005 London Underground terror attack which killed 52 people and injured 770 people.

He lost both his legs, his left eye, and his spleen, burst one eardrum and perforated another and suffered two punctured lungs, a ruptured liver and more after standing just inches from bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan in the Edgware Road blast. He now suffers from Complex PTSD, Survivor's Guilt, OCD, night terrors and depression and has tried to kill himself four times – most recently in May last year.

He's so haunted by the sight of the bomber's face, Dan paraphrases Princess Diana, “There's three of us in the marriage, Me, Gem and Khan.”

And, despite being fiercely independent, there are inevitably some daily tasks for which he relies on Gem.

Even Dan has questioned why Gem, 42, would take on such a “responsibility”. But for Gem, Dan's injuries are irrelevant - not one of them has dimmed that smile.

“The connection was there before we met. It does not faze me, one bit,” she says.