Community rallies as woman plans her own funeral after cancer diagnosis

PEOPLE: Couple bring forward wedding plans

A Perthshire woman has been planning her own funeral after being given just months to live after a cancer diagnosis.

Kirsty Maxwell was diagnosed with a signet cell tumour in her stomach, which has since spread to her oesophagus and begun attacking her organs.

As a result of the diagnosis the 31-yearold has brought forward plans to marry fiancee Nadia Huggan, and the pair will tie the knot in a simple registry office service next week.

The community of Alyth, where Kirsty owned two businesses, has rallied around the couple to raise more than £6,000 to cover the cost of her funeral.

Nadia said: “We’ve already spoken to undertakers and I’m already taking pictures of her with friends so we can put together a slideshow,” she said.

“I think she just wants anyone who can be there to be there and not remember her in a sad way.

“Our biggest fear is that coronavirus stops that and mean only a certain number of people are able to attend.”

She added: “We are actually going to the registrars to get married on the 29th. We’ve been engaged for a while and we wanted to do it properly with a big wedding, but because Kirsty doesn’t have long left we decided just to go with a couple of witnesses to get married.”

Kirsty added that her cancer is so rare that doctors at her surgery had only ever seen one case before.

She said: “I’m just zoned in on getting it all sorted so it’s not left for my family to deal with,” she said. “I’ll also be able to have things the way I want but all the stressful things will have been done.

“I’m lucky in the sense that I have the opportunity to have a few months – it could have just happened and I wouldn’t have the chance to do all the things I wanted to do.”

She added: “The people of Alyth have been amazing. They’ve raised over £6,000, which is completely overwhelming.”

Picture: Kim Cessford. Kirsty Maxwell, left, and her fiancee Nadia Huggan with one of their dogs.