HERE COMES THE PRIDE..
Poorly Jack, 8, leads mum down the aisle
BY ARTHUR VUNDLA A SERIOUSLY ill boy made his mum’s dream come true when he walked her down the aisle on her wedding day.
Maxine and Michael Connolly wed after a 13-year romance.
Their plans to marry had been put on hold after their son Jack was born with a life-limiting heart defect.
But they tied the knot in front of 75 guests, including their other children – Lucy, nine, Sophie, four, and Ellie, two – with eight-year-old Jack walking Maxine down the aisle.
Dressed in a kilt matching his dad’s outfit, Jack walked arm in arm with his mum as a piper played Highland Cathedral.
Maxine said: “When I was halfway down the aisle, Michael had tears running down his face.”
The bride, from Bathgate in West Lothian, didn’t know if Jack would ever get to see her and Michael marry. He was diagnosed with heart valve defect Tricuspid atresia while still in the womb.
It makes him tired and he has already had three major heart operations – the first when he was five days old. He will eventually need a heart transplant.
Maxine said: “After I got dressed, the first thing Jack said was, ‘Mummy you look so beautiful’. When he said that, I had a lump in my throat.
“He was so cute wearing his kilt and helped me walk by picking up my dress. We kept telling him he was such a good boy.”
Maxine, 30, gave up her job as a dental nurse to care for Jack last year.
The couple had been trying to save for a wedding and were able to marry after winning a £15,000 wedding at the Dumfries Arms Hotel in Cumnock, Ayrshire.