DYING MUM’S WISH FOR FELLA TO BE HAPPY ‘I’m teaching my hubby to find a new wife’
A LOVING wife battling cancer is teaching her husband how to date to help him find a partner when she has gone.
Sarah and Lee Reed only tied the knot last month.
But terminally ill Sarah, 37, who has just months to live, is determined to help Lee, 26, find a girlfriend.
While she was planning her own wedding to her husband, she was also drawing up a list of dos and don’ts to help him find love again.
Sarah wants him to meet a woman who will make him happy and be a good stepmum to her 10-year-old daughter Chloe.
She has told him to sign up to online dating and is coaching him on how to woo his dates.
She said: “It might sound crazy teaching my man how to meet a new woman when we have only just got married, but I need to know he will be happy after me.
“Lee and Chloe have brought me so much joy and if I can leave them just one thing I want it to be happiness. Life must carry on for them so I’m helping the only way I know how.
“He’ll make an incredible husband for one lucky woman.”
The couple got together in 2013 and Lee moved in with Sarah and Chloe, who has autism.
But their joy was shattered in summer 2015 when Sarah found a lump in her breast.
She had treatment but despite chemo and radiotherapy the cancer spread and last year Sarah was told it was incurable.
Despite being heartbroken at the thought of telling Lee and Chloe, she realised there was a way to take back some control – by ISOBEL DICKINSON helping Lee find someone when she was gone.
Sarah said: “It had taken him ages to get together with me and on the first date he’d not brought his wallet, so I knew he needed some help.
“I explained I needed to know he would be happy again and that would help make sure Chloe was happy too.”
When he agreed, Sarah knew it was time to give him dating training, adding: “He looked horrified at first but I told him if he was going to meet a nice woman he needed my help.”
Sarah has written a list of instructions such as “be happy and love them like you love me” and “don’t forget your wallet”.
After the news Sarah’s cancer had spread to her ovaries, the couple applied to Gift Of A Wedding, a charity helping people with a terminal illness.
But even in the run-up to their big day last month, Sarah was still adding to her list of dating instructions for Lee.
Lee said: “When Sarah told me I had to meet someone else I was upset but I understood it’s her way of looking after me. In my eyes she is irreplaceable and I want to be her husband for as long as possible.”
The family, from Barnoldswick, Lancs, are raising funds to pay for treatment in Germany that might extend Sarah’s life. It costs more than £180,000.
Sarah said: “It seems an impossible amount but I have to try and stay here for my daughter and husband as long as I can.
To donate to Sarah’s appeal please visit gofundme.com/savingsarah-life.