Four weddings and a second husband

And even after a second marriage she wasn't sure she'd got things right.

So she went back to husband number one – only to discover that her second husband was in fact the one she wanted.

In the past 28 years Cath, from Caerhowel, near Newtown, has married and divorced two men – Graham Campbell and Darren Winston – only to have second thoughts about each of them and marry them once again.

Her unusual love life began when she was 16 and met Graham in a pub in the West Midlands. He was 17, and tried to sell her a watch.

She said: "I was in a pub in West Bromwich and he sold me a watch for a fiver. It looked expensive, he said it was gold, but days later it broke and I managed to track him down to have it out with him. Instead he persuaded me to go out on a date."

A year later Cath became pregnant with their daughter, Jennifer, and for her traditional family that meant a wedding had to follow.

"When I told my mum she insisted we get married and it was all rushed through," she said. "We got married at a register office in July 1986. I couldn't drink, the DJ didn't turn up so there was no first dance and then Graham went off to a nightclub with some mates – so it was hardly a perfect day."

As Graham's job called him away from home for most of the week, the relationship disintegrated as well. Graham left less than a year after the wedding, leaving Cath to pick up the pieces.

"What else could I do?" she said. "A year later I bumped into Darren in a pub. He used to go out with a friend of mine. We got talking and were soon a couple."

The couple had a son, Matthew, in 1990 and in 1992 decided to tie the knot with a big white wedding.

Cath said: "I wanted to do it properly this time. It was a wonderful day and I thought 'This is it, my life is sorted now'.

"And it was for the next few years. But then things started to go wrong – arguments, not talking to each other, all the things I had been through with Graham."

The family moved from the Midlands to Mid Wales and everything seemed to be happy again.

But Cath said the cracks quickly appeared again.

"Darren couldn't get a job locally and had to work away in the week so it was back to the same situation as my first marriage," she said. "We'd both changed – it felt like the love had gone."

The couple split in 2001, with Darren moving back to the Midlands.

Two years later, Jennifer celebrated her 17th birthday and said she wanted to meet her dad.

"It was really strange talking to Graham again. He did want to see Jennifer so we met in a pub in a nearby town," Cath said.

"We had a really great time and I realised there was still a spark between us."

Graham eventually moved in with Cath again and in June 2005 they remarried.

"Call me an eternal optimist but, again, I thought that was it," Cath says. "The cracks soon began to show though."

After the pair split for a second time Cath thought it would be good for her son to keep in touch with his father, and so tracked down Darren through Facebook. Cath said: "We arranged to meet up and, as we sat chatting, I realised he was still the man I fell in love with all those years before.

"It went so well that I told Matthew, who's in the army, and we all met up for a meal – with Jennifer too. I felt like my family was back together. But I worried that I'd remarried my first husband and it had gone wrong. what if the same happened with my second?

"So I took my time, got to know him again. Darren moved in and got a job locally – no more going away like the first time around."

On Cath's birthday in January the next year Darren gave her an engagement ring and they married in September 2011.

"We'd been waiting and waiting for my divorce and just wanted to get married," she said. "So we didn't tell anyone and ran off to Gretna Green.

"We got married in the register office with just a work colleague and a cousin for witnesses.

"When we came home it was a surprise to all our friends and family but they were all overjoyed for us."

A stable and happy family life is more important than ever for Cath as she suffered a serious stroke last September, which left her paralysed down her right side and unable to talk or walk. Slowly but surely she has recovered her health – with the help of her husband.

She said: "I had to learn everything again which was tough.

"But Darren kept urging me on. He really lived up to his wedding vows."