Katrina Gibbs has incurable bowel cancer, which will kill her within a year. So she's getting married.

Katrina Gibbs can barely walk. She is sustained by a bucket of pills at her side.

The 49-year-old doesn't feel like a bride, but she is - and it was a group of strangers who made it happen.

Last year, Gibbs began to suffer aches and pains in her back following a car crash.

After 10 months and numerous doctors' visits, the pain hadn't gone away.

She went to the doctor again, expecting another round of shrugged shoulders.

Katrina Gibbs and her fiance Andrew Geayley. Photo: DAVID WALKER/FAIRFAX NZ

The next day, she left with the news she would be dead within a year due to a vicious strain of bowel cancer which had attached itself to her spine.

"It came out of the blue."

After months of operations and chemotherapy, all her options have been exhausted, and she is receiving end-of-life care.

By her side is her fiance, Andrew Geayley. They've been together for nearly eight years, and between them have seven kids from previous relationships.

Her youngest, aged 9, knows his mum is sick. He is the greatest victim of her diagnosis, she says.

"He knows I'm dying now . . . that's the hardest thing about it," she said.

"It's bloody hard to know that you're going to leave him behind."

She talks to her fiance every day about her death. He'll look after her son, he says to her, as if it's a foregone conclusion. She knows he's right.

It left just one more thing to do before her death.

The couple had been engaged for two years, but kept pushing the date out. With the diagnosis, they knew it had to happen.

"We were talking about it and thought, why not? We were going to anyway," Geayley said.

The wedding began with Gibbs' hairdresser.

She heard about the situation and arranged for a cake. She told a photographer, who offered his services too.

From there, word about the wedding began to spread around close-knit New Brighton.

Best friend Karen Beaumont, who is "like a sister" to Gibbs, offered them her backyard as a venue.

She made a post on Facebook, simply asking to borrow a marquee.

Within hours, they had more than just a marquee: they had a wedding.

The couple were offered gazebos, cars, food, decorations, labour. They were offered a large display of paper roses; custom-made soy candles; a classic car for their first drive as husband and wife.

Builders offered to come in and set up. A bride due to be married in December even offered them her brand new decorations.

A month before the day, the entire wedding had been donated in pieces by strangers the couple had never met.

"It's just something else. It's humbling to the maximum," Geayley said.

"It started with her hairdresser, and then 'kapow', all these people we don't even know jumped on this thing . . . far out."

The couple's seven kids will be at the wedding, scheduled for next month. It will be a crowd of 60, watching a dying bride's wish come to life.

Gibbs, for her part, will walk down the aisle, cancer be damned. Her son will be by her side.

And it was all due to the kindness of strangers.

"There's some really, really generous people out there. You just don't know how to thank them."