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A terminally-ill man and his fiancee are in a race against time to plan their dream Valentine’s Day wedding.

Tragic cancer patient Paul Williamson, aged 48, from Tile Hill, Coventry, has been told he doesn’t have long to live.

But it’s his dying wish to finally marry his former teenage sweetheart Anne Hope – despite only having a couple of weeks to plan a wedding, and a shoestring budget to do so.

Planning their wedding should be the most exciting time of their lives.

But for Paul and Anne, and their loved ones, the Valentine’s Day wedding will be a bittersweet occasion.

He was told in the summer that the cancer he had been battling had become terminal.

The devastating news threw his wedding plans to partner Anne Hope, 48, into a tail spin.

The couple had got engaged the month before after dating for about three months.

Despite it sounding like a whirlwind romance, the couple felt like it was fate after they had originally been together as students some 30 years previously.

The pair were reunited in May last year after three decades of no contact.

They’d met as teenage students at the old Coventry School of Music, in Percy Street, Spon End.

Anne recalled: “We met when I was in my first year and Paul was in his second year.

“We went out for two years. It became hard though to get together because Paul moved to Birmingham.”

After completing his advanced music qualification, Paul began studying at the Birmingham Conservatoire.

He left Tile Hill, where he had grown up, to take over his grandparents’ house in Sheldon after they died.

Lynda Crabb, Paul’s sister, said: “Distance was against them at the time. People didn’t really drive then.”

The couple, who had thought they’d never hear from each other again, were reunited by coincidence ten months ago through their mutual love of music.

Anne said: “I’d just come out of a long term relationship. My mum said she’d buy me an electric piano.”

Anne, who already held a Grade Eight qualification in piano, wanted advice on choosing a piano and to find a good music teacher.

She said: “I looked on the internet and spotted his name on a directory of music teachers.

“I obviously remembered the name and contacted him.”

In the years following the young couple going their separate ways, Anne had become a music teacher. She subsequently married, changed her maiden name and had a daughter.

She said: “When I contacted him I didn’t say who I was. I didn’t want to say who it was.”

But former concert pianist Paul had his suspicions that the woman who turned up on his doorstep for lessons was “his Anne from Canley”.

After spotting Anne’s mother’s surname on the cheque for the piano, it soon clicked with Paul that the woman he had spent the day with was not just a “good friend” as she had told him, but his ex-girlfriend.

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Anne said: “At the end of the day after getting the piano, I gave him a hug and a kiss and thanked him for a lovely day. At that point I just felt this overwhelming love for him.

“We just fell back into the relationship.

“There was an immediate connection.

“You either have that or don’t with a person.”

She added: “He did end up giving me a few piano lessons, but we just ended up in the pub catching up on old memories.”

Sister Lynda told the Telegraph how the couple came to the decision last week to start planning their wedding. She said: “Both Paul and Anne were very emotional last week.

“I was with Anne and she got upset and said that all she wanted to do was marry Paul. When I took Paul to the doctors, he got emotional and said that he just wanted to marry Anne too.”

But that left them just over two weeks to try and arrange their dream wedding.

Paul, a former concert pianist, hopes to record himself playing Rustle of Spring by Christian Sinding which would be played during the church ceremony.

The family has just a shoestring budget to play with.

Lynda explained: “The priest could only marry them on Valentine’s Day. Because it’s Valentine’s Day, the price of everything just goes up.”

Whilst the bride’s nails are being taken care of by Atlantis Nails and the car, some of the flowers and church have all been arranged, the family is struggling to find a suitable reception venue at such short notice.

Lynda said: “There will only be 20 people at the reception so we don’t need anything big.

“It would be nice to have it somewhere slightly public so people can see Anne walk in with her dress.”

They are hoping local businesses may like to offer help for their big day.

Lynda added: “We would love it if there could be a videographer there to capture the event.”

The family have also struggled with finding a nice wedding suit for Paul, whose weight has plummeted to just eight stone. Lynda said: “He hired a suit for my daughter’s wedding but it just hung off him.

“It would be lovely to get him measured for a suit.

“It’s hard for him to get out of the house sometimes, so we would need to find someone who could make a home visit.”

Paul and Anne are now looking forward to finally getting married in the church where Paul’s parents were married in 56 years earlier.

And, in the meantime, the family are rallying round to to all they can to make Paul as happy and comfortable as possible.

Lynda said: “We just take everything one day at a time.

“He never gives up.

“He’s full of spirit. He still plays the piano and can drag me around and then out to the pub.”

She added: “Anne is go good with Paul. She cares for him so much.”

Gazing lovingly at her husband-to-be, Anne said: “Paul was my first love.”

*CAN you help Paul and Anne have their dream wedding? Anyone who might be able to help find a reception venue, videographer or tailor is asked to email lyndacrabb@hotmail.com.