A pair of love-struck gamers are getting married after meeting while playing Call of Duty - because he begged her to stop shooting him.

Kayleigh Hopgood, 22, met husband-to-be Gary Davy, also 22, playing online Xbox Live game Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, when he sent her a grovelling message out of the blue, begging her to stop killing his character.

Gary noticed the same user was shooting him dead and sent his assassin a message saying "please don't kill me" with a smiley face emoji.

Following their initial interaction down the barrel of a gun in November 2011, love blossomed with Gary and Kayleigh joining each other's online party, spending many hours talking and playing together before eventually exchanging phone numbers.

Kayleigh, who is now studying multimedia journalism at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent and wants to work in radio, said: "I was playing a team deathmatch on MW2 and after a few games I got a message from a guy called 'It's Gazza', which simply read 'please don't kill me' with a smiley face on the end.

"We were in the same lobby for the next few games and he continued to message me.

"I decided to invite him to an online party, but he didn't talk.

"I started a private chat with him and that's when I found out he was suffering with a bit of depression.

"He didn't really have anyone to talk to and I guess he found he could trust in me."

After chatting online for months, they finally met face-to-face at Kayleigh's parents' house when Gary travelled from his home in Peterborough, Cambs, to Grays in Essex on Valentine's Day in 2012, but the couple did not actually start dating until February the following year.

Kayleigh added: "Gary came down to meet me and it was nice to put a face to the gamer tag I had been talking to for months, but we didn't start dating until 2013 as I was worried about the distance.

"My parents were understanding and my dad used to take me to Peterborough when he could, while Gary would get the train down."

Gary proposed to Kayleigh at her 21st birthday meal in June 2015, while on a family holiday to the Greek island of Rhodes.

The wife-to-be was serenaded by a violinist - organised by Gary - who played Kayleigh's favourite song, Open Arms by Celine Dion.

Gary, who is a sport and exercise science student at the same university, said it was a chance encounter online as he does not play the game as much as Kayleigh, however the couple still enjoy playing Call of Duty together.

He added: "Kayleigh says she hated the idea of online dating and also never thought that she'd end up with someone she met on the Internet.

"I saw the same username kept on killing me, so I jokingly sent the message to continue the light-hearted nature of the previous games.

"It feels like a unique story and an extraordinary set of circumstances that I embrace.

"I never expected for a second that I would be spending the rest of my life with someone I met while gaming.

"Now it is happening, I wouldn't change any of it for the world."

The couple are due to get married on August Bank Holiday weekend in August 2017, although neither of them ever imagined finding their soulmate online, let alone via gaming.

Kayleigh added: "It just didn't seem natural.

"I always imagined meeting my husband through work or friends, but I guess you never who you're going to meet over Xbox, and in my case it was my future husband.

"I couldn't be happier with the man I'll be marrying. He's loyal, loving, caring and smart. He will do anything to make me happy and I'd do the same for him.

"It's been perfect and I know the future holds a lot for us."