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Cancer brought Dave and I together, from our first dates on a chemo ward to walking down the aisle two years later, it helped cement our love for one another
WHEN CANCER PLAYS CUPID

We fell in love on a chemo ward knowing cancer could cut us short at any point

Emma was 39 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010. Five years later, it returned just as Dave came into her life

CANCER doesn't just affect the patient.

It can wreak havoc with relationships, rampaging through lives, and leaving them in tatters.

 Cancer brought Dave and I together, from our first dates on a chemo ward to walking down the aisle two years later, it helped cement our love for one another
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Cancer brought Dave and I together, from our first dates on a chemo ward to walking down the aisle two years later, it helped cement our love for one another

Emma Campbell found herself a single mum-of-four to Jake, now 15 and triplets Ella, Louis and Theo, now eight, while also facing breast cancer.

She was 39 years old when she was diagnosed in 2010, after discovering a lump under her armpit.

Five years later, thinking she was in the clear, her cancer returned - this time she developed a rash on her chest.

But this time, instead of heartache, cancer brought Dave, 54, into Emma's life. Here, she tells The Sun how she found love despite the obstacles in her path...


WHEN it comes to first dates, I think I can confidently say ours tops the charts for originality.

Dave and I got to know each other during those heart stopping, tummy lurching early days...on a chemotherapy ward.

I was hooked up to an IV drip with a cold cap strapped to my head.

I was desperately trying not to be sick into the bucket clutched to my chest.

 I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, five years later after thinking I was in the clear it returned
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I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, five years later after thinking I was in the clear it returned
 As a single mum-of-four - three of them triplets - also dealing with cancer, it's fair to say I had a bit of baggage to bring to any new relationship
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As a single mum-of-four - three of them triplets - also dealing with cancer, it's fair to say I had a bit of baggage to bring to any new relationshipCredit: VJ

Sitting opposite me was the wonderful man who, less than two short years later, would become my husband.

It's funny. You get to a certain age and both accept that you're going to bring baggage into any new relationship.

In my case, by the time I hit my early 40s, I already had a giant suitcase - that was well over the luggage allowance limit.

A single mum-of-four, three of them triplets.

A history of ill health and an absent ex who sadly had played no part in the kids' lives for a very long time.

Not exactly footloose and fancy free!

 The way Dave and I got together gives me goosebumps every time I tell the story
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The way Dave and I got together gives me goosebumps every time I tell the story
 We met on Peter Andre's 60 Minute Makeover, after I was chosen to have my house redecorated for the show and Dave was a handyman on the crew
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We met on Peter Andre's 60 Minute Makeover, after I was chosen to have my house redecorated for the show and Dave was a handyman on the crew

All that was more than enough. But the latest heavy weight I found myself carrying around was a brand new diagnosis. Or should I say, re-diagnosis.

The breast cancer I thought I'd beaten, the same cancer that I thought I'd said a permanent farewell to four years earlier, was back.

So, you can probably appreciate why those supposedly blissful early days of falling in love were a little complicated to say the least.

After five years clear, my cancer came BACK...it's cruel and absolutely terrifying

THE first time round back in 2010 - pre Dave - I had a lump in my breast and under my armpit.

But the second time round in 2015 - at the same time as Dave and I met - I developed a rash on my chest.
It was hot, red and itchy.

I desperately hoped it was something that would just clear up of it’s own accord. I felt so well!

I was given antibiotics and told myself that it must just be some kind of harmless rash but it clearly wasn’t.

After blood tests, X rays and biopsies it was confirmed.

The cancer had returned in my skin.

It was the most enormous shock.

I was nearly five years clear, I’d never felt fitter!

Even as chemo started I think I was still in shock, disbelief. How could this be happening?

Especially now, just as I was falling in love. It felt cruel. There’s no other word for it.
Cruel and absolutely terrifying.

Dave and I got together in a way that still gives me goosebumps every time I tell the story.

A handyman on Peter Andre’s 60 Minute Makeover, we met after I was lucky enough to have had my house "made over" for the show.

We fell in love quickly and without hesitation, despite the obstacles in our path.

We both had different tapes running through our heads.

 Our first dates were on a chemo ward, me hooked up to an IV drip, cold cap firmly on my head
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Our first dates were on a chemo ward, me hooked up to an IV drip, cold cap firmly on my head
 Sitting opposite me was the wonderful man who, less than two short years later, would become my husband
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Sitting opposite me was the wonderful man who, less than two short years later, would become my husband
 We fell in love quickly and without hesitation
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We fell in love quickly and without hesitationCredit: Emma Campbell

For me, with the fear of a premature death always at the forefront of my mind, I felt hugely guilty.

Maybe it was wrong to let the relationship continue? Maybe it wasn’t fair on Dave?

Does he know that I might die? Does he realise that our time together could be cut short at any point?

That was how I viewed things, the anxiety of losing my life to cancer clouding every thought I had.

 Two years later we got married, with all our kids around us - I have four and Dave has a son, George
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Two years later we got married, with all our kids around us - I have four and Dave has a son, George

But, luckily for me, Dave looked at cancer and the place it had in our lives, a little differently.

He was always so positive. So upbeat and optimistic.

He saw our very challenging first six months together as a a chapter that would soon be closed, forever.

He definitely struggled more as time went on and he realised that our life together would never be quite like he imagined.

In Dave's words...

IT was a whirlwind.

It was so far removed from how relationships normally start.

No casual dating, flirting, testing the water.

We went from first date to ‘in it for the long haul’ ...the reality was, I was falling in love with someone who might die.

But I felt I had to take the chance.

I naively thought that once chemo was finished, that we would be able to move on and start living a normal life.

When in actual fact, the uncertainty and emotional ups and downs are something we live with every day and I’ve had to adapt.

Thanks to the regular treatment I still have (and also probably thanks to a big old dose of good luck) my health has remained stable since we met.

Unfortunately, my state of mind hasn’t been so constant and when I get crippling anxiety about blood test results or spend days on end prodding and poking a part of my body convinced that something is wrong, Dave has a tough time too.

Dave is my rock. I know it’s an overused phrase but he really is.

I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that the treatment that I’m on has really affected our sex life. Libido? What’s that?

Mine has gone into hiding and it really gets me down.

 We’d both erase cancer from our lives in an instant if we could but, as we can’t, we really do try to make the best of it. We appreciate what we have
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We’d both erase cancer from our lives in an instant if we could but, as we can’t, we really do try to make the best of it. We appreciate what we haveCredit: Emma Campbell
 I'm not going to go so far as to thank cancer, but I will thank Dave. For being brave, for taking a chance and for riding the storm with me
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I'm not going to go so far as to thank cancer, but I will thank Dave. For being brave, for taking a chance and for riding the storm with me

Thanks to a medically induced menopause and daily drugs that suppress my hormones even further - well, let’s just say that an early night in our house, really does mean that. An early night.

Me asleep before the kids and Dave wondering where his er.. enthusiastic wife has gone.

I know I speak for both of us when I say that we’d both erase cancer from our lives in an instant if we could but, as we can’t, we really do try to make the best of it.

We appreciate what we have.

We know how far we’ve come and who knows? Maybe without cancer we wouldn’t be together?

Maybe our relationship wouldn’t have cemented itself like it did from the very start if it hadn't been tested in such a dramatic way.

I’m not going to go as far as to thank cancer for coming.

But I’m certainly thanking Dave.

For being brave, for taking a chance and for riding the storm with me.

It’s a rollercoaster of a ride with no guarantee of a happy ending but it’s our ride and I wouldn’t change that for the world.

Emma's new book All That Followed, published by mirrorbooks.co.uk is available on Amazon - buy now.

 Emma's new book All That Followed is now available to buy
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Emma's new book All That Followed is now available to buy


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