Crushing news gives couple fresh outlook
Last updated 14:31, Thursday, 10 April 2008
They had talked about getting married but had not got round to setting a date. But when tragedy struck it gave Sian Worth and Chris Fleming a new perspective on life and they realised the importance of arranging their wedding.
The couple, who live in Workington and are both staff nurses at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, met through work three years ago.
Chris, 38, is from Wishaw near Motherwell while Sian is from Egremont.
Sian, 36, said: “We had always thought we would get married but had no formal engagement. We had been waiting for the right moment.”
Nine months after giving birth to daughter Cerys, Sian was hit with the devastating news that she had cervical cancer.
“It was May 8, 2007,” she said. “That date is stuck in my mind. It was just before I was about to go back to work after being on maternity leave.
“It was a bolt out of the blue.”
She was sent to Gateshead where she underwent a seven-hour operation. On returning home, she was unable to lift Cerys or push her pram.
“It was difficult coping with the after-effects of the surgery and a young child,” she said. “Chris had to take time off to help.”
It was at this point that their thoughts turned to setting a date for their wedding.
Sian said: “I took one step at a time. After I had the surgery I started to worry that the cancer would come back, but the wedding was something for me to focus on.”
They knew that they didn’t want to have a big wedding so wouldn’t need a long time to organise it.
The Blackbeck Inn near Egremont was available on January 26 this year, so they booked this date.
They had a civil ceremony attended by 35 close family and friends.
Sian said: “We didn’t want a huge wedding and invited people who had been there for us over the past year.
“I had seen a gold and ivory baby dress in a shop and thought it would be perfect for Cerys and we decided to use these colours as the theme.”
Although Sian and Chris had only months to organise the wedding, they found that having the colour theme from Cerys’s dress made it easier for them to make decisions on what to have on the day.
They chose cream roses and freesias with crystals, gold chocolates from France sprinkled on the tables and almonds in gold bags for favours along with balloons from Crown Celebrations and a cake made by Gillian Marr, of Mealsgate.
More friends were invited for the evening reception.
Sian had been looking at dresses and was going to go for something simple, but it was when she saw a gold dress in Olivia James in Egremont – in her size – that she knew that it was meant to be.
“Everything fell into place,” she said. “I had lost a lot of weight so actually had to put on weight to fit into it.”
Daughters Cerys, now 19 months, and seven-year-old Ffion were flowergirls and Chris’s brother Mark Fleming was best man.
Sian said: “It was an emotional but happy day. The wedding helped us all put things behind us.”
Sian, who is clear of the cancer, is currently having three-monthly check-ups at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.
