Laurin Long met the love of her life Michael Bank back in 2015 while she was being treated for breast cancer.
Even though the circumstances definitely weren’t ideal, Laurin wouldn’t let her disease get in the way of happiness and commitment. The brave woman had just been through a mastectomy as well as rounds of chemotherapy and had to take it easy for a while.
Ever since Laurin met Michael, the two have been inseparable. In fact, Michael dropped on his knee and proposed to her two years after they met.
“Keep this party going?” he asked her.
Doctors had declared Laurin cancer free and it appeared that she finally had a future to look forward to without worries. In addition, she finally had time to plan a wedding and the most special day of her life.
However, one day, disaster struck. Laurin started noticing some pain in her back and was feeling unwell. After visiting the doctor, they gave her a horrible diagnosis.
The cancerous tumors came back, and this time it was present in her bones and liver.
Laurin once again underwent three months of chemotherapy, but the results were not sufficient. It didn’t take long before the cancer was detected in her lungs as well.
A wedding date had already been set, and doctors urged the couple to move up the wedding because they were afraid Laurin wouldn’t make it.
That wasn’t an option for Laurin and Michael, and they ignored their request.
The day they had chosen had a special meaning, as it was the anniversary of their first date together. They wanted everything to go as planned, despite the medical difficulties.
“We told them no, we had a special date,” she recalls.
Luckily, Laurin could count on the fantastic support of her friends. One of Laurin’s friends works as a wedding planner and volunteered to arrange and organize the wedding for her.
Additionally, Laurin was invited to do a clinical trial for an experimental treatment in North Carolina. With the support of the In The Middle non-profit organization for cancer patients, the couple was able to afford the treatment.
“I could focus on getting the clinical trial (which started in February) and didn’t have to worry about the little details,” Laurin tells. “The doctor said he would work with us to feel my best on the wedding day.”
Even though the diagnosis was extremely severe, Laurin responded well to the experimental treatment.
And to top it all off – their wedding was absolutely perfect. Doctors told her she probably wouldn’t make it, but not listening to them ended up being the best decision Laurin could make.
“I wanted to share some sneak peek pictures from the BEST DAY EVER, our wedding day! March 24, 2018 goes down as my favorite day in my almost 30 years of living! Mike and I had our dream wedding and everything came together just perfectly!! He is my husband, my best friend and my soulmate! It was so wonderful to have so many people share in our celebration yesterday! We can’t thank everyone enough who traveled near and far to be with us!” she posted on her Facebook page.
“I got to dance the night away and feel like a queen all day long! Best of all I became a wife to the man of my dreams! Mrs. Bank has a nice ring to it!”
“I know he’s going to be there through sickness and in health,” the newlywed said of her husband. “He’s my rock.”
The couple is now waiting to get more information about the treatments so they can schedule a honeymoon in the coming weeks. Even though she’s not out of the woods just yet, Laurin is getting better and is enjoying life to the fullest with her husband Michael.
“I’m doing better than I was in December, I have more good days than bad,” she said to TheState. “But it takes two strong people to get through this. We’ve been through more in three years than most couples go through in 50.”
“We can go through this together. It has made us both stronger.”
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