Family plans wedding for Leeds mum in six days after breast cancer diagnosis with six months to live

Sophie Watkins, 27, was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer in April 2023 after three years in remission from the disease.

Doctors gave her a prognosis of six months but said she may live up to two years if she was lucky.

Keen to marry her partner, Alekos McGarry, 32, her full-time carer, but too ill to choose a venue, outfits and food, her parents, Tara and Carl Watkins, 52, stepped in to plan the entire day for her in less than a week.

Tara and Carl - who also help to care for Sophie full-time - organised a Greek Orthodox wedding in a church near their home in Reading.

Tara helped Sophie pick her dress from an online boutique shop, and invited friends and family over to the house 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 customer adviser at a bank who is from Leeds, 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 up in the air whether I was going to get baptised, but we’d be baptising Aria anyway so I wanted it all to be 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 was first diagnosed with stage one, triple negative breast cancer in November 2019, after finding a painless lump in her right breast.

Doctors gave her a biopsy and on December 31, 2019, confirmed she was suffering from cancer.

She said: “I’d only booked two hours off work so I could go to that appointment.

"I went back into the bank, headed straight for the toilets, and just felt like I was going to pass out.

“I was only 22 at the time. It was a pure shock for myself and Alekos.

“They told me I needed all this treatment - chemotherapy, radiotherapy, a lumpectomy - not to mention fertility treatment, as they were sure the chemo would affect my chances of having a baby.”

Sophie had four embryos frozen in January 2020, as she and Alekos had decided to try for a baby after she went into remission.

She began the first of four chemotherapy rounds, each lasting three weeks, in February 2020.

But the pandemic halted her treatment, and she wasn’t able to return for her lumpectomy - a surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from the breast - until June.

By August, doctors told her the treatment had worked and she was cancer free. She 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 was struck down with flu and it left her with a persistent cough and headaches when she woke up. After being unable to get rid of the cough for eight weeks, she visited her GP - who told her she may have a lung infection.

“I told her I’d previously had breast cancer, and watched her face drop,” Sophie said.

“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?'”

Doctors said 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 said ‘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.

“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 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.

“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.”

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.”