Laurin Bank was told to adjust her wedding date by doctors as they had a fear that the cancer patient would not live to see March 24.
But she refused and tied the knot with her husband on the same date.
“This date was special to us,” Bank says of herself and her now-husband Michael. “We felt like moving that date was giving up and giving in to cancer and letting it run our lives. We didn’t want to give in. That was our goal … and I was able to walk down the aisle to my husband. I was able to dance with him and I didn’t need a wheelchair or oxygen. I did it I made it.”
In September 2014, Bank, of Columbia, South Carolina, was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. Before fighting with cancer and being declared cancer-free in April 2015, she underwent chemotherapy, radiation and a double mastectomy.
“When I learned I was cancer-free I felt ecstatic,” she told PEOPLE. “I felt free and that I had gotten my life back. And I was more ready than ever to live my life.”
Doctors informed her in August 2017 her cancer had returned as stage four and had metastasized to her bones, liver and lungs.
“It’s not the news I wanted to hear,” she told PEOPLE. “I looked at my oncologist and said, ‘quality over quantity. That’s my goal. And if there’s treatment, I want to do it.’ I was ready to fight. I fought once and I knew I could fight again. Being stage four is scary but I’m young, so I have a lot of fight in me.”
Bank started treatment as part of a clinical trial and her health began to improve. But, in September, doctors warned her lungs are not so strong and she might need oxygen for her wedding day.
“The oncologist said waiting six more months to get married would be risky. She said she wasn’t sure whether I’d need a wheelchair to get me down the aisle. She said it would be best for us to move up our wedding date. The doctor also said with my lungs not being so strong, I might need oxygen for my wedding day.”
“Mike looked at me and said, ‘Don’t you dare worry. It’s going to be okay,’ ” says Bank, who chronicles her health journey on her personal blog, The Polka Dot Queen. “We didn’t want to give in to the cancer. We wanted to have [our wedding] on our terms.”
As planned before they got married on March 24 and she danced passionately in front of 230 of her family and friends.
“I danced until the last song of the night,” she says. “The wedding day was the best day ever. I was so shocked that I made it! I felt good and I felt strong. It was an emotional morning. As I walked down the aisle to him, I was just bursting with joy and happiness because I was so excited to marry him.”
Unfortunately, Bank passed away on October 2018 and left everyone in tears.
[rumble video_id=v57erx domain_id=u7nb2]