Every girl grows up dreaming of her wedding day. Some even have the whole plan laid out years ahead of time!
But for one young woman who will marry the love of her life next month, wedding day fever has been replaced with anxiety, worry, and a last-ditch plan hatched in desperation.
Emma Houlston, from London, couldn’t be more thrilled about her wedding day, but the joy of the moment is tempered with uncertainty. That's because, like other young brides with chronic medical worries, her future is uncertain.
Houlston has a rare kind of cancer, and she’s almost completely out of treatment options. In fact, the only promising treatment left to her is a hugely expensive immunotherapy that isn’t covered by NHS, the U.K.’s universal healthcare.
Now, Houlston is fighting for her life and fighting for the care she needs, all while planning a wedding at the same time.
Read on below to learn how this incredible, optimistic young woman is defending her future, one challenge at a time.
[H/T: Daily Mail]
When Emma Houlston was 29 years old, she noticed she was starting to put on weight, and constantly felt bloated, tired, and under the weather.
She chalked it up to her approaching 30th birthday, thinking that she was just under stress. But fortunately, a doctor was able to quickly diagnose a much more serious problem.
Houlston had a tumor the size of a grapefruit on her ovary, and had a rare and fast-acting form of cancer in which her tumor could grow by as much as half an inch a week.
Houlston's cancer, small-cell carcinoma of the ovary, was extremely aggressive, but her medical team acted quickly.
They removed the whole tumor successfully, and she underwent six months of chemo to ensure the cancer cells were eradicated.
At the end of the six months, she was declared cancer free. She began planning her wedding to fiancé Matt Lees and wondering whether she might be able to have a baby despite her intensive treatments.
Houlston had just over a year without cancer, time she spent putting life in order and preparing for the future.
Then in the summer of 2016, she began to feel unwell and bloated once again, just as she did before her first diagnosis.
Doctors confirmed in June that the cancer is back. Houlston's abdomen is riddled with small tumors, which, due to her earlier treatment, are likely immune to chemo and other traditional cancer treatments.
Houlston's able medical team can't take the same approach they took before, particularly because the tumors are unlikely to respond to chemo.
They attempted an experimental drug trial to no avail, and they're now running out of options.
The only treatment left is an immunotherapy, where the body's own immune system is triggered to go after and attack the cancer cells.
Immunotherapy treatments like the one have been tremendously successful in lots of other cancer patients and might give her a real shot — there's just one problem.
This cancer therapy is new and experimental enough that it isn’t funded under the U.K.’s National Healthcare System. To get the treatment, Houlston needs to pay an estimated £114,000, or just under $140,000.
It’s a tremendous amount of money, but Houlston and her fiancé came up with a truly novel approach to get the ball rolling.
The young couple had already pushed their wedding date up significantly. They'll be married next month because they don't know what the future holds, and they want to make sure that Houlston gets the opportunity to marry the love of her life.
Many of their loved ones have contacted them, asking what they'd like for wedding gifts.
They got the question so many times that Houlston and Lees decided to email their friends and tell them that in lieu of a wedding present they'd very much appreciate a small donation to Houlston's medical fund.
After all, wedding gifts have always been meant to help secure a comfortable future for the couple, by helping them furnish their life together.
It's just that, in this case, wedding guests are skipping the serving platters and roasting pans in the interest of securing a different future: a healthy bride with a long life ahead of her to share with her groom.
The friends and family of the couple were incredibly enthusiastic about the idea, more than happy to forgo old-fashioned gifts in favor of a future for the bride.
In fact, within just 12 hours of sending out their initial email, Houlston's fundraising site was flooded with donations from well-wishers.
They started the fund with just £20 of their own money to kick things off — by the next day, the fund went viral, and more than £50,000 flooded in from family, friends, and, for the most part, total strangers who simply want a happy life for the couple.
Now they have raised a whopping £216,000, or about $265,000 — far more than the estimated goal of £114,000. Pictured above, Houlston is enthusiastically thanking everyone who donated to her last shot at conquering cancer.
She and Lees still have a long road ahead, but she's already started the treatment, and now they know that people all over the world are rooting for their happily ever after!
If you'd like to contribute to Houlston's fund, check out her GoFundMe page, and don't forget to SHARE this incredible story about the fighting spirit and the kindness of strangers!
