A couple who met as children while receiving cancer treatment at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital tied the knot at the hospital.
Joel and Lindsey Alsup said the hospital was the perfect place for their ceremony on September 1st, the first day of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
"I get teary-eyed thinking about it. I think there's no better marriage of a city and a place than there is between Memphis and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital," Joel told WREG.
Lindsey was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia 25 years ago at the age of 10. Joel, at the age of 7, was diagnosed with a cancerous bone tumor and would eventually lose his right arm.
“It had grown large enough that it broke a bone in my arm near my shoulder,” Joel said.
The pair developed a friendship throughout their treatment at the hospital, but couldn’t have fathomed that it would one day blossom into romance.
"When I met this guy, when I was in treatment, I admired him,” Lindsey told the station. “I looked up to him, I thought he was such an incredible person. We grew in our friendship over the years.”
Several years later, both of them started working at the hospital and Joel built up the courage to tell Lindsey his feelings for her were romantic.
"I was finally brave enough to tell her that I liked her, not only that I loved her. Luckily she felt the same way,” Joel said.
Lindsey and Joel hope their story encourages others in their fight against cancer.
"I could have never fathomed that I would be sitting her today at his side as his wife, having the privilege to married on the grounds of the place that saved our lives," Lindsey said.
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