My wife and I planned our hospital wedding in 48 hours when I thought I had days to live – but it gave me the strength to keep fighting and a year later I’m in remission from cancer

• Zack and Maddie Stroud married at the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute in 2022
• READ MORE: We organised our wedding in two days after dad’s cancer  spread 

A dying groom married his wife in hospital as he feared he had just days to live, but more than a year later he is in remission after the nuptials gave him the strength to keep fighting. 

Zach Stroup, 27, married the love of his life Maddie, 25, in the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute – where he was being treated for the disease – in April 2022.

The couple, from Colorado, rushed to prepare for the big day back after Zach’s condition worsened and they feared he had just days left to live.

However, Zach said the special day completely changed his perspective and gave him a reason to keep fighting the devastating disease – at a time where he felt ready to give up.

He said: ‘It was the scariest thing I think I’ve ever been through – everything was so dark for so long but the wedding was a complete turning point for me.

Zach and Maddie Stroup pictured at their hospital wedding in 2022, after Zach’s health deteriorated

Zach’s cancer travelled to his spinal chord and almost left him paralysed, so the pair rushed to marry

‘I don’t think I would’ve made it through if it wasn’t for that day.’

The pair met when they were in high school and had been living a ‘perfect life’ before Zach was hit with a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease.

Zach explained how he began to complain about feeling tired and having constant night sweats but was given medication and expected to go back to normal.

But in November of 2020, his symptoms worsened and after a visit to the hospital, he was hit with a diagnosis of stage four non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – an aggressive form of blood cancer.

After six months of treatment, he was declared in remission in April 2021 when the couple took a trip to Florida and Zach proposed.

As life was going back to normal they scheduled the wedding for May 7, 2022 but Zach fell ill again in September 2021.

READ MORE: We organised our entire wedding in TWO DAYS after finding out my dad’s cancer had spread 

He started to lose mobility in his legs and almost became paralysed so was rushed to hospital where he was told he had a tumour in his spinal cord.

Zach underwent more chemotherapy and was still receiving treatment a month before the wedding was due to take place.

At this point, Zach’s health had deteriorated along with his will to keep battling, so the couple decided that they would be married in 48 hours.

Hospital workers and Maddie’s mother pitched in to help organise the ceremony as quickly as possible, including safety pinning her dress to ‘make it look better than it did’, and the pair celebrated surrounded by staff and patients.

‘It was heartbreaking to see him feel so defeated but I was so happy to see how much light the wedding brought back into his eyes,’ Maddie said. 

Maddie (pictured with her father) said hospital staff helped her safety pin her dress to make it look like it fit better

The pair had planned to marry on May 7, but had to plan the nuptials in just 48 hours for fear that Zach only had days to live

The couple’s hospital wedding was attended by staff, patients and family and they cut the cake together

The couple said the wedding was meant to be the last thing they did together but it showed Zach how much he wanted to live.

‘I was really exhausted of fighting, I wanted to keep going for Maddie but I was so tired and just didn’t want to keep going,’ Zach said.

‘I felt like that was it for me, I was just in such a dark place that it felt like I was never going to get better. But having that whole day be about nothing but me and Maddie and our love for each other brought so much happiness back to my life and made me realise what I had.’

He added: ‘It just made me tremendously happy, when I saw her turn that corner it just gave me that drive and reminded me why I was fighting. She looked so beautiful and after everything we had been through seeing her so emotional made me realise what this was all about.

‘We will definitely renew our vows at some point so we get the chance to cut the cake and have a first dance.’

Straight after the wedding, Zach decided he was willing to try a new trial of chemotherapy, which he described as the harshest treatment he had to go through.

He also underwent a bone marrow transplant to remove any remaining cancer in his body and was declared in remission after four more months of treatment.

The pair rushed to prepare for the big day back in April 2022 and planned the wedding in 48 hours after the couple said that they feared Zach had just days left to live

Maddie’s father is pictured walking her down the aisle in the hospital where she and Zach got married 

Cancer of the lymph nodes which affects 13,700 new people every year in the UK

Lymphoma is a cancer of the lymph nodes, which is the body’s disease-fighting network.

That network consists of the spleen, bone marrow, lymph nodes and thymus gland.  

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma can occur anywhere in the body but is usually first noticed in the lymph nodes around sufferers’ necks.

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma affects around 13,700 new people every year in the UK. In the US, more than 74,600 people are diagnosed annually.

It is more common in males than females, and it is commonly diagnosed either in a patient’s early 20s or after the age of 55. 

Five-year survival rates:

Survival can vary widely with NHL. 

The general survival rate for five years is 70 percent, and the chance of living 10 years is approximately 60 percent. 

Symptoms include:

• Painless swellings in the neck, armpit or groin
• Heavy night sweating
• Unexplained weight loss of more than one-tenth of a person’s body
• Itching

Risk factors:

• over 75
• have a weak immune system
• suffer from celiac disease
• have a family history of the condition 
• have had other types of cancer

Treatment:

It depends on the number and locations of the body affected by Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Therapy typically includes chemotherapy.

Zach has undergone physical therapy over the last year and and as a result has been able to go on holidays and back to work as an insurance agent.

‘I’m the healthiest I’ve been in years so it feels like anything is a possibility,’ he said.

Maddie said that hearing that cancer had come back in 2021 was ‘defeating’ but they refused to let ‘cancer take that moment away from us’.

She said: ‘He wanted to give up and I couldn’t let that happen so we moved the wedding to two days after.

‘We just thought, if it’s the last thing we get to do together then at least it’s something positive. But here we are proving that if you just keep fighting then that positivity can keep coming.’

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