Couple win a wedding after bride’s cancer fight
WHEN Kelly Andrews was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukaemia and then a bout of pneumonia, her distraught family were told to prepare for the worst.
The condition became so severe that her heartbroken fiancé Daniel Coombes felt he had no choice but to start planning her funeral.
But after undergoing a successful stem cell transplant, the 26-year-old is on the road to recovery – and has landed her “dream” wedding after winning a competition.
“It’s going to be an amazing end to a truly awful year,” said Kelly, mum to two-year-old Ruby.
“We can’t wait to see our little girl dressed up like a princess, and to celebrate our wedding day with all the people we love.”
Kelly, from Cefn Hengoed, Caerphilly, first began to feel unwell in February and started coming up in lumps. It was initially thought she had a bad bout of flu, but when she couldn’t lift her head off her pillow she decided to call a doctor.
After being seen at Ystrad Mynach Hospital, she was sent to Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil where blood tests were carried out.
“They sent their blood results to the University Hospital of Wales, and when they came back I was sent straight there,” said Kelly.
Doctors diagnosed her with leukaemia and sent her for chemotherapy to reduce the number of white blood cells in her body.
“They said it was so bad that if I’d left it another 48 hours I could have had a stroke or gone blind.”
But worse was to follow for Kelly who caught pneumonia due to her weak immune system.
“My family were told to prepare for the worst,” she added. “I will never forget the moment I was sat in bed and the doctor in intensive care told me and my family that I was fighting a losing battle.
“They said I could either stop undergoing chemotherapy and let the cancer affect me, or stop treating the pneumonia and let that kill me. I literally just broke down.”
During her stay in hospital, Kelly was unable to see Ruby for fear of picking up an infection.
“All I kept on thinking was that Ruby wouldn’t remember me if I died,” added Kelly. “That just absolutely killed me inside. Ruby is my life and I couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing her grow up. That actually gave me the strength I needed to fight this.”
Doctors carried on treating her for cancer and pneumonia, and miraculously she was soon well enough to undergo a stem cell transplant.
“The nurses on the haematology ward saved my life. They were absolutely amazing,” she said.
Kelly, who has been engaged to Daniel for three years and will continue to be on medication for some time, decided to enter the Bryn Meadows Golf Hotel & Spa Win A Wedding competition.
And after sending in their entry, which explained their torrid year, the pair beat 350 entrants to land the prize worth more than £5,000.
The couple will wed in The Barn Suite on Friday, December 30, complete with wedding breakfast, entertainment, photography and a whole host of other gifts.
“The day before I found out I had leukaemia Dan broke his ankle by falling off a curb, so he’s had to deal with Ruby on his own and manage with a broken foot,” said Kelly, who met Daniel on a night out in Cardiff.
“He’s my hero. Strong doesn’t even come close to how he’s been. He’s one of the most caring people I have ever met.”
Gavyn Bolton, general manager at Bryn Meadows, said: “What struck us about Kelly and Dan, was not their hardship, but the love they clearly have for each other, their outlook on life, and their exciting plans for the future with their daughter.”