British man dies on flight home after proposing to girlfriend at Grand Canyon

A man from Yorkshire died in his fiancée's arms while the couple were flying home from their dream holiday in America, just a day after he proposed at the Grand Canyon.

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Martin Foulds and Sally Mondryk, from Halifax, got engaged at the tourist attraction and had planned to visit Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Florida but were forced to fly home early when Martin, 55, fell seriously ill.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post, Sally, 48, said her fiancé had an advanced tumour on his bowel.

"He hadn't been very well since June," she said. "He went to the doctor with recurrent urine infections and had several courses of antibiotics.

After a fever, Martin was admitted to hospital in July.

Sally added: "They thought he had sepsis. At that point, CT scans, MRI scans, ultrasounds and a colonoscopy were organised and it was found he had something called a fistula, which means that a hole had developed between his bowel and his bladder."

Martin was waiting for a date for his operation but was told he could go on holiday.

The Daily Mail reports that when he got ill in the States, the couple booked an earlier flight home but Martin tragically died on the plane in Sally's arms.

"I felt numb - it was disbelief and almost as if I was watching someone else [die]," she said.

"That was the worst thing - 300 people were watching him die."

Martin had struggled to breathe around four hours into the flight.

The flight was diverted to Canada and now Sally is waiting for his body to be flown to the UK so they can make funeral arrangements.