Moment couple got married in hospital waiting room when bride was given just 48 hours to live: Widower, 22, relives his bitter-sweet wedding day

A grieving widower has told how he and his wife were married in a hospital waiting room after she was told she had only two days to live.

Jack Beniston, of Stamford, Lincolnshire, had been supporting his girlfriend Michelle O'Connor in her battle with cancer when the couple were given the devastating news.

Mrs Beniston, 32, was first told she had cervical cancer just two months after she gave birth to the couple's daughter, Martha, last June.

She was later told she had just 48 hours to live, prompting Mr Beniston to propose and the couple to organise a wedding in Peterborough City Hospital where she was being treated.

The newly-weds spent just four weeks together before Mrs Beniston tragically passed away

                                 

Mr Beniston, 22, said: 'The doctors said we have the facilities to marry you here today if that's what you want, and instantly I said "let's go for it".

'I managed to get both our families there and some close friends, which was lovely. The nurses finished their shift at five and they spent the next hour dressing up the room, you would never imagine it was a waiting room.

'It was amazing seeing Michelle walk down the aisle, she looked beautiful. It was a lovely wedding. It was gut-wrenching but it made Michelle happy and that's all I wanted.'

Mr Beniston said the couple knew they would get married from the moment they met - but they didn't imagine it would be for just four weeks and in a hospital.

The dress was bought by Mrs Beniston's mother and was cut to look just how the bride wanted it.

The newly-weds spent their wedding night in hospital and Michelle, who had worked as a jeweller since she was 16, was then moved to a nearby hospice where Jack spent every moment with her before she passed away surrounded by her family and friends. 

He said: 'I couldn't leave her, that would have been heart-breaking. The hospice gave us a really nice room and dressed it up as a honeymoon suite on our first night there.

'People would say to me why don't you go home for a night, but there was no way I was missing out on any moments we had left together.

'Before she was ill we always used to spend every living moment together, we lived as we died. We wouldn't have it any other way, we loved it.

'We would just talk and talk for days on end. Sometimes I would take her out into the grounds and we would have some fresh air, sometimes we just stayed in our room all day.

'By that time she knew she didn't have long left and there was no hope, I didn't tell her, she just knew.

'Every day that passed she would sleep for longer and she was getting weaker. I knew it was coming.'

The couple met at a night club three years ago and got together after going out of their way on their route to work each day to see each other.

Mrs Beniston had three children from previous relationships, James, 12, Dylan, eight, and Megan, seven, and she gave birth to their daughter last summer

She suffered some aches and pains during her pregnancy, which gradually got worse after the birth, which involved a Caesarian section.

Following the birth, they were told she had cancer and she was later informed by doctors that it was terminal.

Describing the day they received the devastating news, Mr Beniston said: 'I got a phonecall at work and they said she's looking bad and I should come in.

'I got there and they said she's really gone downhill and they didn't expect her to make the weekend.

'I just couldn't believe it really, it didn't seem real. I found out it was terminal about a week earlier, which was just awful.

                                   

He added: 'I couldn't bear the thought of telling Michelle, so she knew she was very ill but at that point, she still thought she might be able to have chemo. There was some hope for her, but all my hope went when I received that news, it was devastating.

'I had to be strong though, I couldn't let her see there was anything wrong.'

For the first month after Michelle died Jack moved in with his parents who were looking after their eight-month-old daughter.

He said: 'There were some days I just couldn't even be in the same room as her, it was just too painful.

'By December I started to sort myself out and I moved back into my house with I was looking after Martha by myself.

'She has been the best therapy any counselling could ever give me. I love her so much, she's amazing.'

Mr Beniston thinks the hospital should have picked up the signs of cancer earlier during Michelle's pregnancy. He still doesn't know what primary cancer Michelle had.

He said: 'They doctors always seemed to blame the pain on something, the pregnancy, the C-section. They gave her a scan and found the cancer, but I wonder why it wasn't picked up when she had the scans for the baby.

'I am in talks with the hospital about why it wasn't picked up until it was too late. I'm still trying to find out what cancer she had, we don't even know that yet.

'They found it in her cervix and it had spread to her kidney, it almost shut one of them down.'

Mr Beniston is now set to climb Mount Kilimanjaro this Christmas and is due to be at the top by New Year's Eve.

He is raising money for Sue Ryder Care, which runs the hospice that cared for Michelle in her last days. To donate to his cause, visit his VIRGIN MONEY GIVING PAGE