Oldham bride-to-be wins $100,000 Australian wedding

Sophie Maxwell is originally from Saddleworth but she moved to Australia just before the pandemic.

Working as a midwife, Sophie had originally decided to move to Melbourne, before she decided to up sticks and move to Sydney, where she met her partner, Alex Nolan.

Both aged 32, Alex was recently diagnosed with epilepsy after suffering a seizure, leaving Sophie to care for him.

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Having planned to propose prior to his seizure, the couple found themselves in a financially difficult situation.

Sophie’s mum Tracey Maxwell, who lives in Greenfield, said: “He fell really heavily on the floor and she thought he was having a heart attack so she was about to do CPR on him. He’s only 32 and in good health.

“She called the paramedics who took him in and said he’d definitely had an epileptic fit. Both his shoulders had broken, she had to even do his coat up for him over the last six months.

“He was going to propose to her anyway, they were going to get a new house.”

The couple ended up having to move in with Alex’s parents due to the subsequent loss of income, and they found themselves unable to afford a deposit on a house, meaning the wedding was put on the back burner.

The winners were announced on Australian TV (Image: Channel 9/Today)

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After entering the competition, the couple were told they had made it down to the final two, and were asked to provide Sophie’s parent’s contact details so the TV channel could film a good luck message.

However, mum Tracey and dad Kieron were in for a shock when they found out the couple had actually won, and they were recording a "congratulations" video.

Tracey said: “We were expecting to give a ‘good luck’ video to go with the program and they said ‘no they’ve actually won’ but we’re not telling them, you just have to give a congratulations video.

“We had to keep it all secret as well. It was revealed on the Thursday morning breakfast time. We stayed up until 12 o’clock watching it because of the different time zone. It was all a bit mad really!”

The mother-in-law-to-be added: “It feels a bit nice when all the horrible stories are going around about different people. It always happens to somebody else doesn’t it, but not to you. You always hear about people winning competitions.”

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The couple’s prize includes a venue for three days in Kangaroo Valley, in New South Wales, with accommodation for 80 people.

The prize includes food, hair and makeup, and even dresses for the bride and mother-in-law.

Speaking on the Today programme, Alex said: “We’re absolutely speechless, I just threw an entry in a couple weeks ago to do something nice for Sophie and here we are, it’s hard to believe.”

Sophie added: “It’s been a rocky year but this is going to be a lovely way to celebrate something.”