A devoted couple have had to rush forward their wedding and get married in hospital because of the groom’s devastating cancer.

Terminally-ill Jason Lee, 32, who has battled an aggressive type of skin cancer for three years, became so dangerously sick that he and his wife-to-be Donna Rubery decided to wed at Bradford Royal Infirmary while they still had time.

Ward staff turned his side-room into a makeshift chapel and the couple got a special wedding licence.

Their four daughters – 12-year-old Lauren, from Donna’s earlier relationship, Jodie, seven, Chloe, six, and three-year-old Amy – were the bridesmaids.

Mrs Lee, 30, said: “Jason said it was a perfect day. The nurses helped get him ready in his suit, the girls had their flowers and my brother bought me a beautiful dress. It was just perfect for the both of us.

“Jason is the love of my life and my hero. He doesn’t want to die – he’s too young – but he knows it is going to happen and he wanted to make everything right for us before he goes.

“He doesn’t want us to be left with nothing but we won’t because we will always remember him and hold him in our hearts for the rest of our lives.”

She said she first fell for her husband’s easy-going charm ten years ago when he moved in next to her mum’s house in Buttershaw. She said he had not only brightened her life but had also saved the life of their youngest daughter who had a dramatic bathroom birth.

“I had been having problems before Amy was born but the hospital had allowed me home at 28 weeks,” she said. “I went into labour in the bathroom. She was in a breach position and got her head stuck but Jason was talking to the operator and he delivered her. She wasn’t taking any breaths but he brought her back.

“If it wasn’t for him she wouldn’t be here. He is my hero.”

It was about the time of her birth that Mr Lee, a furniture maker, went to his doctor with a suspicious mole on the back of his calf.

“It had started off tiny but grew to the size of a penny and was bleeding,” Mrs Lee said.

“He was referred to see specialists in Leeds and a couple of weeks later they said it was cancer. He had bouts of chemotherapy and then radiation but more tumours grew and the disease spread into his blood and bones.

“He wasn’t a sun worshipper. He had only ever been abroad once and that was to surprise me in Portugal on holiday.

“This cancer doesn’t discriminate – it can happen to anyone.”

The couple, of Reevy Road West, Buttershaw, had originally planned to marry next year, then rearranged the ceremony at Bradford Register Office to take place last Saturday.

But a fortnight ago Mr Lee suffered a fit at home and was taken into Bradford Royal Infirmary.

“We talked with the doctors and things that had to be said were said, so we decided as a couple to bring the wedding even closer,” Mrs Lee said.

Mr Lee has since been moved to Bradford’s Marie Curie Cancer Care Centre where staff are managing his pain and helping keep him comfortable.

“We’re hoping if they can keep his pain down that he might be able to come home for a few hours,” said Mrs Lee.