Twenty years ago, Stuart felt stuck in a rut in his nursing job in Glasgow and decided it was time for a change. In May 2003, he went to New Zealand for a working holiday and to see more of the world. After three months, his savings ran out so he settled in Wellington and found a hospital job through a nursing agency.
At the end of that year, he met Sarah, who was working on the same ward. “I’d just finished my nursing training and was just enjoying the single life,” she says. Although she had seen Stuart around, it wasn’t until he asked a question about a medication chart that he really caught her attention. “When he spoke, I loved his accent. It was like I was hit by cupid’s arrow,” she says. “Something happened in that moment.” She began to ask him what he was up to at weekends, and inviting him to join a group of colleagues for drinks, but Stuart says he never picked up the hint and thought she was out of his league.
