News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

As teenage cancer victim Lucy Anderson-Edwards stared death in the face she could not have ­imagined that the illness would lead her to love and happiness, she tells the Sunday People.

For five years Lucy’s life had been dominated by her desperate struggle against leukaemia, which saw her have a bone-marrow transplant and her weight plunge to just six stone.

But, in an echo of the new hit romantic Hollywood movie The Fault In Our Stars, she found reason to live again when she met another cancer sufferer.

Lucy, 23, said: “There were times when we were both living day to day and couldn’t even see any future ahead for either of us.

"Ironically, while cancer is one of the worst things that has happened to us, it’s also one of the best – as without it we wouldn’t have found each other.”

When Lucy saw the trailer for the film, starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, she thought it was identical to her story with Adam Woods, 22.

She said: “But thankfully we’ve got the real-life fairytale ending.”

Landscape gardener Adam said: “I was just looking to keep myself healthy and alive – not to fall in love.

"But they say you do find love in the most unusual of places. I definitely wasn’t expecting it at a cancer support group.”

The couple met in July last year after two charities organised a week away for young cancer survivors .

Lucy, of Telford, Shropshire, said: “Over the week we became inseparable.

"When it was time to leave I gave him a hug and asked to exchange numbers.

"I sent him a text to say: ‘I’ve had a great week and you were the icing on the cake.’

“He called me a few days later and we ended up on the phone for five hours and 22 minutes.

"Something just clicked.

(Image: Press People)

“It wasn’t just that we could share our experience of cancer – somehow I knew he was someone special.

“I’ve been through so much in life that I now seize the day – life’s too short and I, more than most, know that.”

Lucy’s life changed on August 22, 2005.

The normally healthy 14-year-old was struck down by terrible headaches, flu symptoms and a sky-high temperature.

She was admitted to Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital and a day later transferred to Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital for a lumber puncture to take a sample of bone marrow.

She said: “Two days later I was told it was leukaemia. From that moment my life was on hold.

“I missed my whole first GCSE year, I went down to six stone – I was a shadow of my former self, so exhausted it was hard to even get out of bed.

“I was so upset when I lost my hair.

"My grandad, who had passed away, had always kept a blonde lock of my hair in his wallet and he’d always said to me: ‘Never cut or dye your hair it’s lovely as it is.’”

Lucy had five blocks of intense chemotherapy as an inpatient for nearly a year.

She caught up with her studies and was ready to take a college place when, on August 22, 2007, she was told she’d had a relapse.

She said: “It was so cruel. I’d only just got my strength back, my hair had grown how I wanted it.

"I felt so angry.”

This time she needed more chemo and a bone-marrow transplant.

She said: “I had no immune system so only my parents and the nurses could come in.

(Image: Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham)

“They had to change their clothes and shoes before entering my room which was in a vacuum to prevent infection.

"A ­common cold would have been fatal. My mum stayed by my side every night.”

Luckily a match was found from a donor in Australia and Lucy received the transplant on December 5, 2007.

She was discharged as an inpatient in March 2008.

She said: “I was six stone and in a wheelchair but I was alive.

"My ­fingernails and toenails peeled off and all the skin came off my body – like a reptile.”

Lucy had a blood transfusion and suffered chickenpox and shingles as her immune system rebuilt itself.

It was two years before she was fit for education again, let alone socialising.

Then, in July last year, she met Adam on an activity week to the Lake District organised by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity and Climbing Out.

Adam was a little older when his cancer first struck.

He was at the start of his third year reading religious studies at Lancaster University, in October 2012, he was ­diagnosed with testicular cancer.

He had ignored warning signs for nearly a year but the day after his 21st birthday he woke in terrible pain.

Adam said: “I said to my mate: ‘Did I say something inappropriate to a girl last night or something? As I feel like I’ve been kicked in my privates.’”

A week after he saw a GP, and within an hour of an ultrasound, he was given the diagnosis.

(Image: Twentieth Century Fox)

He said: “The consultant sat me down and said: ‘Have you got someone with you?’ My heart just sank.

"I asked my friend to come in and he said: ‘We’ve done the tests. I’m sorry, we’re pretty sure it’s cancer.’

“I heard that word and my ears ­exploded. He kept talking and I could see his mouth moving but I didn’t ­register his words.

"I was numb.”

Adam had two rounds of chemo in nine weeks and an operation at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital to stop the cancer spreading.

He was even visited in hospital by ­football legend David Beckham.

He said: “I’ve never taken life too seriously and I decided even cancer wasn’t beyond the realms of humour.

“The only wobble I had was the night before my operation when I remember saying: ‘I’m scared.’

“I found out after it had just started to spread – they’d found a small ­unclassifiable growth on my liver – but the chemo blasted it away.

"So they caught me in the nick of time.”

Adam was reluctant to take the Lakes trip.

He said: “Thank goodness my parents shoved me into going.”

In January, Adam started a secret plan to propose to Lucy. He asked her mum for permission and designed an emerald and white gold ring.

In June this year he popped the ­question at Disneyworld, Florida in front of Mike and Sully, characters from the film Monster, Inc.

He said: “It is our favourite film so it seemed fitting the main characters from it should be there.

“As I got to the front of the queue to meet Mike and Sulley, I got down on one knee and proposed to a stunned Lucy.

"My hands were shaking and all I can remember hearing were gasps and some kid in the crowd shouting: ‘Mum look!’ as I said: ‘Will you marry me’.”

(Image: Press People Cancer)

Lucy said: “My mum videoed everything, it’s hilarious.

"Initially, I have a look of horror – then everyone who was queuing up was cheering.

“I didn’t know whether to be ecstatic or embarrassed. I can’t really remember saying yes – but of course my answer was yes.

"It takes a lot to make me cry but I leaked in front of everyone, it was so emotional.”

Disney staff gave them badges to mark his ­proposal saying: Just Engaged.

Lucy said: “We wore them for the rest of the holiday and strangers kept congratulating us.”

Now Adam has just completed his first year in remission and Lucy, who is a clinical assistant in haematology, oncology and radiotherapy at the NHS unit where she was treated, is now six-and-a-half years clear.

Next year it will be ten years since she was first diagnosed but she says it still feels like yesterday.

She said: “Each year that passes makes it less likely it will come back.”

Adam has marked a year since his diagnosis and operation by running a half marathon and an extreme event called Pain and Suffering – a 10-mile mud and obstacle run.

In January he took on the Tough Guy race but unfortunately had to finish just over a mile before the end as he still hadn’t fully recovered.

This January he aims to complete it and raise money for two charities who have supported them: The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity and Climbing Out, which help hundreds of young people with cancer.

Adam added: “Cancer isn’t a part of our lives any more – neither of us wanted to be the cancer kid.

“Our lives have changed from living day to day, and having no control over our lives to looking forward and making plans for our future, which feels absolutely great.”

To give to Lucy and Adam’s appeal to help young people with cancer helped by QEHB Charity and Climbing Out see: justgiving.com/teams/adamandlucy