Mother Dies Just Two Weeks After Liver Cancer Diagnosis, Gets Last-Minute Fairy-Tale Wedding Before Death

A 36-year-old mother-of-two died unexpected just two weeks after being diagnosed with incurable liver cancer. The woman was thought to be “perfectly healthy” until her baby died in her womb at eight months gestation. Just one month after the stillbirth, the grieving mother Dawn Jackson was diagnosed with liver, spleen, and bowel cancer and told it was terminal.

However, her loved ones thought they had a few more weeks or even months with the woman they loved until her situation began to deteriorate quickly. Realizing her time was running short, fiancé Dean proposed immediately and a wedding was organized at the hospital. The couple would only be married for two short days before Dawn passed away from the cancer.

The Blackpool Gazette reports that Dean and Dawn Jackson, from Fleetwood, England, married on May 1 just as Dawn had always dreamed. However, the wedding was bittersweet as the 36-year-old mother-of-two would die just two days later.

Dean and Dawn Jackson had been together for eight years and were expecting their third child together. However, in March, Dawn began experiencing horrific abdominal pain, and the pair rushed to the hospital. It was discovered that their unborn child no longer had a heartbeat, and Dawn was faced with the challenges of birthing a stillborn baby. The pair buried their daughter they named Jaycee-May on March 20. The grieving process seemed to be taking a large toll on Dawn, and Dean noticed she was unable to keep food down, was coughing a lot, and was drastically losing weight.

Two weeks after the burial, Dawn would collapse and again be rushed to the hospital. This time, doctors discovered a blood clot in the woman’s chest which was restricting oxygen to her brain. What was discovered next left the family in shock. Dawn had a large mass on her liver and was diagnosed with liver cancer. Doctors say the cancer had spread to her spleen and bowels and was incurable. The mother only had a few weeks or months left to live.

Dean says, like dealing with the stillbirth, Dawn tried to put on a happy face for her two daughters. Dean says that Dawn had always dreamed of getting married, and he knew he was running out of time to pop the big question. Therefore, he decided he couldn’t wait any longer and proposed to Dawn despite her condition.

“We were devastated. But Dawn faced it in the same way she faced losing the baby – there were tears but she said she had to be strong for the children. She’d always wanted to get married so she was over the moon when I proposed. But at that point we thought she’d have months, even years. Not days. I think I’d fooled myself she had longer to live. Our wedding day was perfect in every way you could imagine – apart from the circumstances.”

The local community quickly came together for the Jackson family and donated flowers, a wedding dress, photography, and beauty products for the wedding. An emergency wedding license was granted to the couple as Dawn was given only days to live.

“Dawn had the dream wedding she always wanted and there is no way this could have happened without Gift Of A Wedding and the generosity of local companies and individuals. She was over the moon. Seeing her smile that day was the best bit, in those moments, in spite of the pain, she was her normal self.”

Sadly, just two days after the dream wedding, Dawn would quietly pass away as her husband sat by her side.

[Image Credit: Blackpool Gazette]