‘I FELL IN LOVE WITH MY WEDDING DJ!’
AS SHE GAVE BIRTH, AMANDA WAS DEALT A DEVASTATING BLOW
Despite having found love and tying the knot, two years into her marriage Megan Willis fell head over heels for the DJ who performed at her wedding.
Us-based Megan, 26, first met her current partner Mark Stone, 49, in November 2015 at a local restaurant where he was working at the time.
They shared a laugh and Megan’s sister decided to book Mark to DJ at Megan’s wedding in July 2016.
Her big day went off without a hitch, but sadly a year into her marriage, Megan was feeling unhappy and neglected, so she went back home to visit her sister. It was then that she returned to the same restaurant, where she met Mark again.
They soon became close friends and chatted every day.
Mark also confided in Megan about the problems in his own 27-year marriage - where he was separated from his wife.
And when Megan filed for divorce two years into her marriage, Mark supported her every step of the way.
When it was finalised in January 2018 she moved to North Carolina and eight months later, once Mark’s divorce was finalised, he moved to be with her.
They had fallen in love. Megan says, while she fell for her wedding DJ, at first she had doubts about the relationship due to their 23-year age gap. But the more time the pair spent together, her doubts disappeared.
“My marriage ended because I was not fully happy and not getting what I needed out of it,” Megan explains.
“Talking with Mark really led me to the realisation that I shouldn’t have to beg for attention. Mark was just a friend yet everyday he took time to check in on me.
“We both really enjoyed our chats no matter how silly or serious they were.”
“I think I realised I’d fallen for him first. Though it was while
Mark was still married but separated from his wife, so it wasn’t something I felt I could act on. I kept it to myself. At this time he needed the support like he gave me and I made sure
I was there for him in that way.
“At first I had the, ‘Oh God, are you falling for him?’ thought, and after that it was, ‘Can this even work?’ and then, ‘Will people think I’m some gold digger?’”
Mark struggled to come to terms with the end of his own marriage, but once he accepted it, he was able to open his heart to Megan – who had been his support throughout the divorce.
“Once I realised my marriage was over, I opened my eyes to the love I felt for Megan,” says
“WE’RE HAPPY AND OUR RELATIONSHIP WORKS, AND THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS TO US”
Mark. “Me getting over my ex was the biggest issue. It took a lot out of me mentally to accept the end of a 30-year relationship.
As I got to know Megan, I discovered underneath a person who filled your heart and soul with everything that defines love.”
Both Mark’s and Megan’s families were accepting of their relationship and were pleased that the pair had found happiness together.
Now, the couple are even hoping to start their own family and have even picked out their baby names.
“We hope to have children. Mark needs a vasectomy reversal to do so. He got his vasectomy done 21 years ago so we hope that having a kid will still be an option for us.
“We already have names picked out,” Megan continues. “Rhett Michael for a boy and Taylie Mae for a girl.”
Megan and Mark have unfortunately overheard strangers whispering about their relationship when they’re out in public, but they vow to never hide their love and want to encourage other age-gap couples that they don’t need to shy away.
“We really don’t care what other people think,” Megan says. “We’re happy and our relationship works and that’s all that matters to us.
“Love is love. Never feel ashamed for who you love. Never hide your love. Embrace it, shout it from the rooftops because it’s the most amazing feeling to love and be loved,” she continues. “I hope people see our age gap and the love that we have for each other and for an age-gap relationship to be less ‘odd’ and to remove the stigma that if a female is with an older male that she’s with him for money.”
It was a fraught pregnancy and Amanda Mancini was constantly faced with losing her unborn son. “I was at the doctors every few weeks after having a big bleed,” Amanda, 32, tells New Idea. “I must have had 20 ultrasounds but he was always OK. It was very scary but it made us want him even more.”
Their third pregnancy had been a surprise, but once Amanda and her husband Marcus, 35, had got used to the idea they were desperate for their baby’s safe arrival.
“After all the problems I’d had the doctor wanted to induce me a little early,” Amanda from Cobram, Victoria, remembers. Having carried him to full term she was at the final hurdle when a quick examination on January 18, 2018 revealed something on Amanda’s cervix.
“They thought it was a low-lying placenta so I needed an emergency caesarean,” she says. “Afterwards I was lying there feeling like a superstar. He was out
and fine, I’d got through it. At last it was all over.”
But it was actually just the beginning of a terrifying year for Amanda.
As she was lying in recovery, yet to even hold her new bub, a doctor dealt a devastating blow.
“He said there was a growth on my cervix and I needed to come back for a biopsy,” she remembers tearfully. “Marcus asked him straight out if it was cancer but they didn’t know. In my gut I knew it was and I started crying and telling Marcus I didn’t want to die.”
“I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO MY BODY, BUT I WAS SO LUCKY IT WAS FOUND IN THE END”
For Amanda, instead of the joyful first moments celebrating her newborn’s arrival, she was enclosed in a fog of panic, worrying how long she had with him and her older children Sebastian, 5, and Talia, 3.
“The midwife tried to distract me. She was asking me what we were going to name our boy but I couldn’t even think about that. I was just trying to process my possible cancer. And I was crying. I couldn’t leave my kids.”
Two weeks later Amanda was back at the hospital for the tests. Tiny baby Frankie was with her but the focus was firmly on the new mum and not her healthy bub.
“They said I was young and my previous pap tests were clear so it should be fine. I’d done everything right with pap tests every two years.”
But the 8cm growth was not fine. Amanda was told it was an aggressive cancer. The bleeding throughout her pregnancy had been a telltale sign but nobody had picked it up, assuming it was a pregnancy problem.
“I’d known something wasn’t right but I assumed the doctors knew best,” Amanda says. “I should have listened to my body but I was so lucky it was found in the end.”
Now she faced eight weeks of radiation and chemotherapy to try and blast the stage 2 tumour.
“The specialist asked what my worst-case scenario was and it was basically what he had just told me,” Amanda says. “I had two small children and a newborn and we lived three hours from the hospital. How could I possibly be there for treatment every day?”
With postnatal hormones raging and a very real fear of dying, Amanda says she cried a lot over the coming weeks.
“Sebastian would ask me why I was crying again but he was too little to understand,” Amanda says. “Even to this day we haven’t mentioned the word cancer. It’s such an ugly word. We had to say Mummy was sick and I needed medicine to get better.”
Relocating to her parents’ house an hour from the hospital, the new mum had to pass her mothering duties to the grandparents.
“I raised Frankie for the first six weeks and then my mum took over,” Amanda says. “It hurt that I couldn’t look after my kids but after treatment I was totally exhausted. I lost 5 kilos in the first week. It took everything from me.”
Marcus visited every week, juggling work with the trips.
Yet, through it all, the mum of three knew she had been lucky. “If I hadn’t had Frankie the growth could have gone undetected for years until it was too late. As the treatment went on the doctors were positive we could get it all. It meant Frankie had saved my life.”
On May 3, 2018, Amanda came home but it wasn’t until October she got the all clear.
“When I had the last scan I was so overjoyed. It made everything worth it,” she smiles. “I wasn’t myself afterwards but it has changed me in some good ways. I don’t take anything for granted and I definitely hold Frankie extra tight. He’s the surprise baby that saved my life.”