A doctor gave his girlfriend a birthday to remember when he proposed to her at 2,000 feet.

Ian Pressney popped the question to girlfriend of four years Kim Allan in the back of a four-seater light aircraft.

The couple flew over a Ditchling field where Mr Pressney had laid out the words Marry Me? using wallpaper rolled out and held down by logs.

Kim Allan, a pathologist at Royal Sussex County Hospital, said: “Ian had to point out the proposal to me because I was looking in the wrong field.

“I was looking out for my horse which was in a different field.”

The couple, who are both in their early thirties and live together in First Avenue, Hove, met when they were training to be doctors at St Bartholomew's in London.

The happy couple have not set a date yet but hope to have the wedding ceremony next year.