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A man with terminal cancer was desperate to get married - but didn't want to leave a heartbroken widow.

His solution? Get married to a SEX DOLL.

Now his surprisingly tasteful wedding pictures have become a viral sensation in his native China.

The Beijing man reportedly wanted to experience a fancy wedding shoot before he died, so he brought the life-like inflatable doll and got the full works - including a make up artist and a beautiful wedding dress.

In the pictures he is seen tenderly holding his plastic 'bride', enjoying a first dance in a ballroom and even taking part in candid shots in front of the make-up mirror.

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The 28-year-old man's name is still unknown, but Chinese netizens offered a series of bizarre explanations for the pictures, with many dismissing it as a bizarre viral marketing stunt.

CCTV reported: "Some netizens recently revealed that the man is actually suffering from a deadly cancer.

"In order not to hurt other people's feelings, he chose to marry an artificial doll instead of a real person."

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The photographer who snapped the series of pictures defended the man's unusual nuptials.

She said that even if she didn’t necessarily agree with the man’s choice of marrying a doll, he still deserved to be respected as a matter of personal freedom.