Courageous Lisa has a fairytale wedding
Reporter: by MARINA BERRY
Date published: 08 July 2009
Photo: Picture: CHRIS BULL
NEWLYWEDS . . . Anthony and Lisa outside Chadderton Town Hall.
WEDDING bells rang for one of the Christie at Oldham Campaign’s biggest supporters in a fairtytale wedding to rival the best.
Lisa Veal had just four weeks to plan her dream day after her partner went down on one knee and asked her to be his wife.
And on Saturday she became Mrs Lisa Russell — the wife of Anthony — on what was one of the happiest days of her life.
Lisa answered an emotional “yes” to her husband-to-be when he asked for her hand in marriage at a charity event which raised £4,210 for the appeal.
Lisa had her long locks shaved off at the occasion, on her 34th birthday, because she didn’t want the couple’s daughters, Chloe (13) and Georgia (7), to see her hair fall out.
She is part way through a course of aggressive chemotherapy, which was halted for a couple of weeks so she would feel well for her wedding day.
Lisa, of Fields New Road, Chadderton, has small-cell lung cancer, a condition rare in someone so young, and although incurable it can be treated.
Doctors at the Christie Hospital have told Lisa the chemotherapy has begun to shrink her tumour, and she is due to have a CT scan next week so they can see exactly how it is responding, followed by more chemotherapy.
Chloe and Georgia were bridesmaids, and six-year-old Jack Picton, son of Lisa’s best friend, Sarah, was page boy at the ceremony at Oldham Register Office, at Chadderton Town Hall. Lisa was given away by her brother, Anthony Veal, while best man was Mark Adamson, a cousin of the bridegroom.
The wedding group then made its way to Oldham’s Candlelight Club, where around 250 well-wishers packed out the three floors to give the newlyweds a party to remember.
Lisa said: “It was brilliant, absolutely fantastic. We had trouble finding somewhere because it was such short notice, but everyone at the Candlelight was wonderful.
“We had the place to ourselves and I couldn’t have asked for a better night. I wish we could do it all over again this Saturday.”
Lisa works as a dinner lady at the Radclyffe School, Chadderton, and her supervisor, Barbara Green made a wedding cake as a gift for the couple.
“It was a brilliant day, the cake was beautiful, we had some lovely gifts and the Candlelight have put pictures of our wedding on its website,” said Lisa. “I couldn’t have wished for more.”
l For information on how you can help the £100,000 Christie at Oldham appeal, see Page 14.
