Why wedding bells are good news for Wendy

4:31am Thursday 14th February 2008

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FOR most couples, marriage marks the start of a long and happy life together. But Wendy Wiseman and David Guthrie, her partner of 15 years, are just hoping that she lives to see their wedding day this March.

Wendy, 42, has been fighting a rare form of stomach cancer which was diagnosed last October. Doctors deemed it too dangerous to operate on a four-inch tumour in Wendy's stomach.

Chemotherapy is stopping the tumour from growing, but Wendy's body will eventually become resistant to the treatment .

She said: "It was such a shock when I found out. Of course you think why me? Of all the illnesses I could have had, why did it have to be this?' But really, it's just one of those things."

Wendy and David, 36, of Delhi Road, Pitsea, have two children, Dean, six, and Ryan, nine. They originally planned to wed two years ago, after David proposed on Wendy's 40th birthday, but the couple were unable to afford it.

Now it's all on for March, with Wendy's sister, Belinda Wheelwright, helping plan the big day. Belinda's employer, the Holiday Inn, on Basildon's Festival Leisure Park has even offered free use of two rooms for the event.

Wendy said: "We wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise. We've had so much help from family and friends, especially my sister, who has been amazing."

Wendy's suffering began in 2004 when fibroids, small non-cancerous tumours growing in her womb, caused really heavy periods.

She said: "I was sitting at the table one day and losing so much blood I was passing out while I ate, so I decided to ask for a hysterectomy."

Around 20 per cent of women get fibroids, but of these only one case in every 1,000 develops into leiomyosarcoma, the cancer with which Wendy was eventually diagnosed last year.

A biopsy following the hysterectomy last February first showed up cancerous cells.

Doctors believed all the cancer had been removed by the operation, but as a precaution, asked her to come for regular MRI scans to check it was not spreading. The scans showed up clear but Wendy's symptoms continued.

She said: "My jeans had started to feel tighter and David had noticed my stomach getting bigger, but when you have kids you just carry on regardless.

"It wasn't until it started getting really painful and I couldn't sleep that I went to the hospital."

Wendy was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma and began a course of chemotherapy to keep the tumour under control.

Her illness is the second tragedy to hit Wendy's family in recent times. Less than two years ago, her elder brother, Gordon Wiseman, was killed in a car crash on the A128 near Orsett Hall on Father's Day, 2006. His nine-year-old daughter Amber, was also in the car.

She has made a full recovery and will be a bridesmaid at the couple's wedding on March 15.

Wendy said: "The wedding is keeping me going, I just focus on one thing at a time. I am really looking forward to having everybody around me at the wedding.

"We keep saying, think positive. That is the only thing we can do, but I have to have a sense of humour about it as well, or I would go mad."