Family sorted entire wedding in six days after mum given months to live
A family managed to plan a wedding and a baby's baptism in just six days after the mum was told she only had months to live.
Sophie Watkins, 27, was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer in April 2023, three years after being in remission from the disease. Doctors said she might have up to two years to live if she was lucky. Wanting to marry her partner, Alekos McGarry, 32, but too ill to organise it herself, her parents, Tara and Carl Watkins, 52, planned the entire day for her in less than a week.
They organised a Greek Orthodox wedding in a church near their home in Reading. Tara helped Sophie choose her dress from an online boutique and invited friends and family over for a buffet, karaoke and dancing. Sophie had a "big Greek wedding" and officially converted to Alekos' religion, Greek Orthodox, by being baptised alongside her 22-month-old daughter, Aria - all on the same day.
Sophie, a former bank customer adviser from Leeds, West Yorkshire, said: "After the diagnosis, this wedding really meant a lot to everyone - so many of us were in tears the entire day. We didn't know where the second diagnosis was going to take us and we'd always wanted to get married, so we thought, 'let's just do it'.
"It was uncertain if I would get baptised, but we were going to baptise Aria anyway so I wanted it all to happen on the same day. I've never been a religious person - but I wanted to be with my daughter and my husband. I want the same faith, the same values they have."
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Sophie developed a tumour on her nose in 2023 (Sophie Watkins / SWNS)Sophie first found out she had stage one, triple negative breast cancer in November 2019, after discovering a painless lump in her right breast. Doctors did a biopsy and on December 31, 2019, they told her she had cancer.
She said: "I'd only booked two hours off work so I could go to that appointment. I went back into the bank, rushed to the toilets, and felt like I was going to faint. I was only 22 at the time. It was a pure shock for myself and Alekos. They told me I needed lots of treatment - chemotherapy, radiotherapy, a lumpectomy - not to mention fertility treatment, as they thought the chemo would affect my chances of having a baby."
In January 2020, Sophie had four embryos frozen because she and Alekos planned to try for a baby after she got better. She started the first of four rounds of chemotherapy, each lasting three weeks, in February 2020. But the pandemic stopped her treatment, and she couldn't go back for her lumpectomy - an operation to take out a cancerous tumour from the breast - until June. By August, doctors told her the treatment had worked and she was free from cancer.
Sophie said: "It'd been such a tough year, so we were both really happy. We celebrated by going on holiday to Greece for a little while, just to finally enjoy ourselves a bit more. I was told I'd need mammograms every year, for the rest of my life - but I didn't mind that. We had our baby, Aria, in April 2022, and moved from Leeds to Reading shortly afterwards. Life moved on."
A year later, her whole family got the flu and it left her with a constant cough and headaches when she woke up. After eight weeks of not being able to shake off the cough, she went to see her GP - who thought she might have a lung infection. Sophie said: "I told her I'd previously had breast cancer, and watched her face drop. She said she needed to send me for an x-ray immediately. They examined me on the same day and less than a week later they rang me back up and told me I had a mass on one of my lungs. I had no idea what that meant. I just kept asking 'is it cancerous?'"
Sophie and Alekos McGarry on their wedding day (Sophie Watkins / SWNS)Doctors told her a blood test would confirm it and on June 5, 2023, a specialist told Sophie she had too many tumours on both lungs to count. After telling them about her headaches - they gave her a CT scan, which showed her cancer had also spread to her brain. Sophie said: "I spoke to an oncologist, because I just didn't even know where to start with the treatment. She asked 'would you like me to give you a prognosis?' and told me I had around six months to live, two years if I was lucky.
"After the diagnosis, this wedding really meant a lot to everyone - so many of us were in tears the entire day. I'd somehow been dealing with it all quite well before. But in that moment, I felt the world coming down on me. I cried and cried for the first few weeks - months, even."
A "really bad" seizure left Sophie permanently needing a mobility scooter and steroids, combined with her anti-seizure medication, made her gain 4st 7lbs in weight. Feeling at her lowest, she decided time was running out to marry Alekos and they should tie the knot as soon as possible. Six days after her diagnosis, her family began planning her dream wedding.
Sophie and Alekos (Sophie Watkins / SWNS)Sophie had to buy her dress from an online boutique, with just three days to go - she paid £800 for it, and bought some £20 shoes from Amazon. On June 18, 2023, she married Alekos in the Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church, Reading, Berkshire. Just before saying the vows, Sophie and Aria were baptised by the priest.
Sophie said: "Aria got fully dunked, which she absolutely hated - but my hair, dress and make-up were all done, so I only got a bit of my hair dunked. Aria was changed into a gorgeous, flowery dress, and given a big candle to hold. One of my mum's neighbours let us decorate their big BMW, and that was my wedding car.
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"Our family had surprised us with a photographer after the wedding, which made me feel beautiful for the first time in ages, and we all went back to my mother-in-law's for lots of Greek food and festivities. She put on a spread of feta, gyros, saganaki, pastitsio and tzatziki. We had karaoke in the garden and dancing indoors."
Sophie with her brother, Jake Watkins (Sophie Watkins / SWNS)The evening finished up with a father-daughter dance - and Sophie danced to 'Hero' by Enrique Iglesias, with dad Carl. She added: "My parents are separated, but my mum suggested that song to the DJ, because my dad used to sing that to me to get me to sleep. We were both sobbing, it really meant a lot. Everyone was in tears."
The next day, Sophie and Alekos went away for a brief "staycation honeymoon" in Monmouthshire, Wales, and did a 'Gavin and Stacey' tour around Barry Island. She said: "It was so nice to get away from it all, even for a few days. We visited castles, had some lovely meals out, and did the Gavin and Stacey tour around Barry Island - we're huge fans."
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