Four months after a gruelling SAS try-out almost killed him, a young soldier has married his long-time girlfriend and is back among his army mates.
Lieutenant Teira Cowan, who spent 11 days in an induced coma after collapsing near the end of an 8km run in the Hunua Ranges in South Auckland on January 25, this month married Layne Lovett.
Yesterday the 26-year-old's father, Monty Cowan, said the wedding was quiet and laid-back - much the way he described his son.
Now "back to square one and good as gold", his son had spoken little of the incident, which resulted in him being rushed by ambulance to Middlemore Hospital and transferred to Auckland City Hospital when his condition took a turn for the worse six days later.
When he woke the first words he spoke were the names of two nephews waiting in the intensive care unit.