Throughout her historic court battle, Debbie Purdy's husband, violinist Omar Puente, has been by her side. This is their inspiring story

Omar Puente remembers stepping out of Heathrow airport for the first time. "The ground was white and it was cold. It was like there was smoke coming out of my mouth when I spoke," he said. "I thought, 'Ooooh dear, this is going to be tough.' I had no friends, no family and no money, but I had come because of Debbie."

That was 1997 and Puente - a Cuban violinist - was to stick by Debbie Purdy in every year that followed, her constant support in a long battle to force the British government to clarify the law on assisted suicide.

Purdy, who has multiple sclerosis, wanted one thing: to know for certain that if her suffering became so bad that she chose to take her life at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, her husband would not be prosecuted for accompanying her.

On Thursday the 46-year-old won a historic judgment from the House of Lords. Afterwards, as she sat in her wheelchair smiling gleefully and telling journalists she was "ecstatic", Puente knelt by her side in a smart black shirt watching her proudly.

"I am happy because Debbie is happy," he said yesterday as he began eating breakfast at their Bradford home. He smiled at Purdy who was lying on the couple's double bed, placed downstairs when the house was converted to accommodate her wheelchair. She was so exhausted from her trip to London she said she might stay there for 48 hours.

By her side, lying on the laminate floor, was one of her husband's four violins. Straight ahead French windows opened on to a small yard in which Purdy was growing strawberries and blueberries. "We'd call it a terrace if we were posh," she said, giggling like a child.

Her husband laughed and said: "She feels more in control, she feels that she has her life back, and I am happy because of that. She is a really strong woman and my mother was a really strong woman too."

Puente was born in 1961 during the Cuban revolution. His father was a doctor and his mother a nurse.

He began playing the violin at the age of eight and as a teenager moved to the capital to study at music school. "My mother moved my entire family to Havana," said Puente, laughing. "She said, 'My boy is going to Havana so everybody is going to Havana'."

Soon he was playing all over the world. One day while rehearsing in Singapore he was told that a music journalist called Debbie Purdy was to interview him. "It was really tough to do the interview because my English was really, really, really, reaaaally bad," said Puente, stretching his words expressively and describing Purdy's white T-shirt and denim shorts. "Her Spanish was zero and my English was 0.1." Somehow the couple hit it off and began dating. "I learned the words 'beautiful' and 'honey' and 'pretty' but I could not really pronounce 'gorgeous'," said Puente, recalling their first days together.

It was in the weeks that followed that Purdy realised something was wrong. She flew back to England and 15 days after her first doctor's appointment was diagnosed with MS. "She called me in tears and I told her to get on a plane and come here," said Puente. For months she travelled with the band from Manila to Malaysia to Indonesia.

Purdy said the band - and especially her boyfriend - never let her feel sorry for herself. Once when she lost control of her bowels, Puente burst out laughing. "I said, 'How can you laugh?' And he said, 'Either I'll cry with you or I'll laugh with you'. What could I say?

"Terrible things happen to people all over the world - people have no water, food or education. MS isn't really so bad - and the fact that I can have a wheelchair, that is a good thing." Purdy had loved to dance but by then she could barely manage it. So Puente held her in his arms, with her feet balanced on his, and swung her around the dance floor.

The couple fell in love and when Purdy decided in 1997 that it was time to return home Puente went with her. Life in Yorkshire was a major culture shock.

"In Latin America you have a big family and you open the windows because it is hot. Here family is small and you close the windows because it is cold. You drive on the left and at the beginning I felt like people just kept saying, 'Please, please, thank-you, thank-you, please, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry'," said Puente, mimicking British politeness.

"But whether it was coincidence, luck or destiny, I began learning a lot, I began playing in new ways and now England is my second home."

Puente's experiences have been extraordinary. At first when he turned up at jazz venues musicians laughed that he had a violin - to them it was a classical instrument. But in time he joined in. Over the years he has played with famous musicians including John Williams, Robert Mitchell and Jools Holland, and been asked to jam with Ruben Gonzalez, the Cuban pianist who was a member of the Buena Vista Social Club. One day someone told Puente that Kirsty MacColl was to sing with his band and he replied "Kirsty MacWho?".

More was to come including collaborations with Courtney Pine, the jazz musician who has produced Puente's first album, "From There to Here". It will be launched in November, and the pair will perform together in Scotland this week. He hopes his work will help pay off debts he built up flying to and from Cuba. In recent years Puente flew home every six weeks to visit his sick mother, who died last August at the age of 86.

Talking about he possibility of one day assisting his wife in a suicide, he said: "All Debbie wanted was a safety net. It is not as if she wants to go to Switzerland tomorrow. I don't want her to ever go, I want her to live hundreds and hundreds of years. And I would have accompanied her whatever happened. But we wanted clarity and at last, that is what we have."

Two year battle

July 2007: Solicitors Bindman's begin to gather evidence from people who have accompanied relatives to Dignitas.

June 2008: There is a high court hearing of Purdy's case at the Royal Courts of Justice. Purdy wants to know what would happen to her husband if he accompanies her to Zurich.

October 2008: Purdy's case is lost but the high court gives permission to take it to the court of appeal.

February 2009: Court of appeal hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice. Three judges rule that Purdy is not entitled to the type of guidance she seeks.

June 2009: House of Lords hears Purdy's case - its final sitting before making way for a supreme court.

July 2009: The law lords rule in favour of Purdy. But Lord Hope of Craighead says it is not their function to change the law - simply to demand that it be clarified.