A 32-year-old mother, who doctors said had just months to live due to cancer, was offered a fairytale wedding by her community, which helped her say ‘yes’ to her childhood sweetheart.
“The wedding day met my expectations and exceeded everything I thought possible. “I felt like a princess that day,” Emma Rice said in an interview with SWNS, the Chron reported Wednesday.
On April 29, the 30-year-old, from Wirral, near Liverpool, UK, was able to marry her childhood sweetheart, the father of her three children, thanks to the generosity of local businesses who provided cakes, photos and the wedding venue, the DJ, the car and the food to make her a perfect day.
After the mother of three, ages 11, 10 and 6, began suffering from uterine pain in February 2021 — which her GP attributed to the misplaced IUD — she was eventually diagnosed with stage 3 cancer a year later.
But it wasn’t until January of this year, after multiple chemotherapy treatments, that the little family’s world “collapsed” when they learned the cancer had spread.
“We asked how long she had and they said about a year. […] Every day seems to go by too quickly when you have a deadline. “We always dreamed of getting married but were never able to do it financially,” said her new husband Dava Rice, 34, according to English media.
Emma Rice was grateful to everyone who helped make her day perfect and said she was determined to share her story to help raise awareness about ovarian cancer and its symptoms.
“I suffered physically in ways I never thought possible – my life and family were taken away from me. But if I can raise awareness and save at least one woman and her entourage from this unnecessary pain, then I’m happy to be in this fight,” she concluded, beaming in her wedding photos.