10:13am Thursday 9th September 2010
By Nicola Fifield
A CANCER patient with only weeks to live will marry her fiancé on Saturday after members of the community rallied round to give her a dream wedding.
Charelle Neale, 33, of Acomb, in York, endured 18 weeks of chemotherapy, followed by surgery to remove her right breast, after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in March.
Then, on August 25, she and her partner, Matt Neale, 36, were given the devastating news the cancer had spread to her liver and there was nothing more doctors could do.
Charelle said: “Matt is the one who is going to be left behind when I die and it absolutely breaks my heart because we were only just starting our life together. We’re only just getting married.”
She said their wedding was initially going to be a low-key event, with a marriage ceremony at York Register Office, followed by a blessing at the Global Church, in Acomb.
But then Global offered the use of its centre for an afternoon party, while The Ainsty, in Boroughbridge Road, offered to host an evening party.
Charelle, who is mother to Georgia, eight, and Cameron, 12, worked as an administrator at Manor School before her illness. She said: “Everyone in the community has wanted to get involved and it’s just grown and grown.
“Someone is making 150 cup cakes for us, someone else has made all my wedding invites, and everybody has just wanted to make it so special for us. I have the best friends ever and the community spirit has just kept me going.”
Georgia will be her mother’s bridesmaid, while Cameron will be an usher, with the job of looking after his mother’s ring. Charelle’s best friend, Mel Hope, will be the chief bridesmaid.
Charelle said: “If I think too far into the future it does really upset me, so I’m just doing one day at a time.
“At first I just wanted to close the door and pretend it wasn’t happening, but then I thought life is too short, and quite literally is for me. I have always been stubborn and a bit of a fighter and I want to be an inspiration to my children. What’s the alternative? Lying in bed and waiting to die?”
She said at the end of September, they were looking forward to a week’s holiday at Center Parcs, paid for by the Willow Trust Foundation, a charity that buys treats for people with terminal illnesses.
She said: “Now and again I think ‘I hope I will make it to then’, but it gives me something to strive for and the kids are really looking forward to it.”
Charelle said she was anxious to pass on a message to other women, encouraging them to check their breasts regularly and visit the doctor immediately if they found any abnormalities.
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