Cancer Survivor Bride Asks Doctors to Walk Her Down Aisle on Wedding Day

Beating cancer is a triumph that many people celebrate. When Sheri James got engaged in January, she chose to combine her victory with another celebration of life: marriage.

The 70-year-old underwent chemotherapy and radiation from February to April 2021 after James was diagnosed with stage three rectal cancer, as reported by Good Morning America.

After she said her oncologists, Dr. Van Morris and Dr. Emma Holliday of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, saved her life, she knew she wanted them at her wedding.

"I could not even envision getting married without them," James told Good Morning America. "I often told them, 'You're working so hard to save my life. Why wouldn't I do what you say?' Well, to go along with that, why wouldn't I want to celebrate this life that they have helped give me with them? So, it's almost a no-brainer. They had to be there. I had to ask them."

Sheri and her then-boyfriend Bill James, 77, had traveled from Seven Springs, North Carolina, to Houston, Texas, after she researched the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s treatments. Her local doctors had initially dismissed her health concerns.

Over the course of her treatment, Sheri became close with her oncologists. When she asked them to walk her down the aisle, they said it was an obvious “yes.”

“It was among the easiest questions I've ever been asked as a cancer doctor by a patient,” Morris told Good Morning America.

Holliday agreed, adding, “As oncologists, we unfortunately are much more likely to get an invitation to a funeral than a wedding. So, this was just such a beautiful and a joyous celebration, and to say it's something that I'll never forget, those words don't even do the feeling justice. It's truly amazing.”

Sheri and Bill had only been together for two months when she received her diagnosis, so she told CBS News that when she heard the news, she gave him an out, “I had known that he had wanted to travel. So, I pretty much told him, 'Time to break up. You can go travel, and I'm going to go deal with cancer.' And he refused to let me do that.”

Despite the challenge of cancer, the couple’s bond grew stronger than ever as Bill supported Sheri through her treatments. "He drove me every morning to the hospital. He was there to pick me up. He never left the hospital, he was outside waiting for me whenever I could go. And I felt like that was a gift that he gave to me. I fell in love with him. He fell in love with me. And it was amazing something like that could happen during cancer treatment,” Sheri told CBS News.

Because Sheri received her care during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bill never met her doctors until the end. But when he finally got the chance to meet them after Sheri finished her treatments, he made sure to show his gratitude.

“And at the end, when we were just wrapping up there, they allowed me to come in. And I showed my appreciation by giving [Holliday] a dozen roses... And I hugged her and whispered in her ear, 'You saved my girl,’” Bill told CBS News.

The couple officially tied the knot back in North Carolina last month, with Holliday and Morris by Sheri’s side.