My perfect day Strangers raise £10k to give cancer mum her dream wedding
AN ailing mum’s dream of a fairytale white wedding has finally come true thanks to generous friends and family.
Terminally ill Vanessa Perks, 31, has been given only three years to live and feared she would never be able to afford a wedding.
But yesterday she arrived in a horsedrawn carriage at St John’s church in Tipton, West Midlands, to marry Luke Barnes. The best man was their son Harvey, seven. Daughter Poppy, three, was a flower girl.
There were 250 guests at their reception in a marquee donated by a local pub and their first dance was to How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes.
Family, friends and total strangers made Vanessa’s dream come true by raising £10,000 for the couple.
Vanessa had permission from her doctors to miss her daily chemotherapy sessions to take her vows.
She said: “I never thought I’d have a day as perfect as this after I was diagnosed with cancer.
“I am overwhelmed how many strangers wanted to make my time left on this planet so special.
“We even got married before I start losing my hair, so I will have the photographs to look back on.
“The thought of not being there for my littles ones as they grow up is the worst thing in the world. But this has shown me how much good there is.”
Vanessa found she had advanced myeloid cancer earlier this year after tripping over the vacuum cleaner at home and feeling her spine crack.
Initially she thought it was bruised but she had broken three vertebrae.
Then blood tests revealed the terminal condition.
Vanessa said: “I broke down in tears. I felt like my life was over. I had to call Luke and ask him to come back to the hospital. He knew straight away something was wrong, but he never imagined it would be as bad as it was.”
Vanessa began a bucket list of things she wanted to do with her family.
First was to take her kids to Disney World in Florida and second was to marry Luke, her partner of nine years.
Chuckle
Luke proposed to Vanessa on her birthday by slipping an engagement ring into her mouth while kissing her.
“I nearly choked,” Vanessa recalled with a chuckle.
Vanessa had to give up her work in a Next store to focus on her treatment. It was eight months of chemotherapy, f ollowed by t wo s t em cell transplants.
To make matters worse, Luke had also quit his job as a steel engineer to care for her.
The family could not afford a holiday or a wedding – until Luke’s sister set up a Go Fund Me charity page and raised more than £9,000.
Vanessa said: “At first it was just friends and family, but then all kinds of random people started giving.
“This means so much to us. We can’t thank everyone enough.”