A dying woman’s friends have made her dreams come true by organising a secret wedding to her soulmate.
Angela Conbeer tied the knot with her love at the surprise nuptials organised by her loving friends and family – and with help from hundreds of strangers.
The Plymouth 51-year-old had been diagnosed with bile duct cancer last April, and was told it was terminal after it had spread to other organs in her body.
She made a bucket list after learning of the devastating news and her number one final wish was to marry her partner, Mark.
Angela’s best friend Leah put out a plea on the popular Don’t Dump It Facebook page and hundreds of people came forward to offer clothing, wedding gifts, jewellery, food and drink, and wedding services such as a cake, hair and makeup and photography services from Foto-Jenik.
Heartwarmingly, Angela and Mark, who have been together for three years, married on Saturday, January 16, ticking off the thing she wanted to do most.
“It is just amazing how kind people have been,” she said. “It was a surprise. It has all been quite overwhelming.”
Thanking members of the Facebook group, Angela said she “really appreciate[d]” everyone coming together to help make her dream come true.
She said: “I truly can’t thank you all for being so kind and generous at this hard time in my life. I really appreciate my dream coming true, and that could never of happened without you or my best friend Leah.”
Dawn Lapthorn, who is admin of the group, wrote: “A beautiful lady, Angela Conbeer, is sadly not very well and her friends and partner wanted to arrange a surprise wedding which is the top of Angela’s bucket list so they needed our help as a group.
“I was asked to block the lady off the group which I did and you all came through magnificently. They were totally floored by your generosity and they wanted me to share with you the pictures and a video of the wedding that you guys helped to make come true.
“This has melted my heart but I’m so so proud of our group and all of you for making this happen. Congratulations to the lovely couple.”
Angela, from Stoke, is also set to feed ducks which will tick off another thing on her bucket list, but loved ones are now searching for a marmoset for her to cuddle.
Her friends and family are also finding other ways to adapt her bucket list and help create experiences here in the UK.
“Another thing would have been to see the Northern Lights,” she said.
“But I can’t do that so my friend brought over a little machine that glows with the lights up into the room and on the ceiling.
“So now I can go to bed and sleep in the Northern Lights. She said ‘I can’t get you there but we can bring the next best thing’.
“One of the other things was to go and feed the ducks because I have a funny weird thing with ducks, they are very cute.”
Angela is also fond of the Burgh Island Hotel at Bigbury-on-Sea and would love to stay there.
“There’s a coastal hotel. I’ve always wanted to go there,” she said.