A bride and groom were married in a chapel ceremony just five days before the bride died of breast cancer.
Dave McLoughlin and his fiancé, Michelle Crowe, are from Tipperary, Ireland, and were engaged for seven years — having gone through tough times during their relationship, but always remaining united.
Crowe, just 33 years old, was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2022, as SWNS reported.
BRIDE WAS DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER DAYS BEFORE DREAM WEDDING
Crowe underwent chemotherapy and a mastectomy in February 2023.
Yet the cancer returned "with a vengeance" last month, SWNS said.
The pair, who have two children together, decided to make their love official.
On March 20, 2023, McLoughlin and Crowe said "I do" at an Irish chapel at the University Hospital Limerick — just five days before Crowe died.
McLoughlin said Crowe was a tough woman — noting she was the "happiest" person.
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"No matter how many times she got knocked down, she gets back up," he told SWNS.
The two met when they were just 16 and 17 years old and reconnected in 2004, when they bumped into each other in Tipperary.
The couple welcomed their first child together in 2009 — a boy named Cillian.
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Back in May 2016, McLoughlin asked Crowe to marry him, although wedding planning was put on the back burner after they suffered other family losses during that time, as SWNS reported.
"It took me 12 years to pop the question … We didn’t want a traditional wedding," McLoughlin said.
In January 2022, the couple welcomed their second son, Oisin.
Just a few months later, Crowe found a lump in her breast that continued to grow, spurring her to see a doctor, according to SWNS.
Crowe was told that she had an 8-centimeter tumor on her left breast and was officially diagnosed with breast cancer.
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After chemotherapy failed to shrink the tumor, Crowe had a mastectomy in February 2023, as SWNS reported.
Weeks later, Crowe complained about a pain in her stomach. It turned out that cancer had spread to her liver, McLoughlin said.
"It came back with a vengeance," he recalled.
"We both knew what this meant but didn’t want to talk about it," he told SWNS.
Their wedding day was indeed special — thanks in part to the nurses and staff who decorated Crowe’s hospital room, he noted.
"She made it her mission to walk down the aisle … [She] looked absolutely gorgeous," he said of his bride.
McLoughlin is "here for the boys," he said, as he is now raising both children on his own.
"She loved our kids more than anything," he told SWNS of his wife.
