After going through debilitating rounds of chemotherapy, Sheri James knew the only people she wanted to walk her down the aisle were the ones who saved her life.
So James, 70, invited her cancer doctors to escort her to the altar on her happy day.
The former obstetrics nurse was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2021 while she was dating her then-boyfriend Bill, 77.
“I got a diagnosis of squamous cell anal cancer. And I told him, looks like it’s time to break up. I’m going to deal with cancer and I think you need to go travel the way you always wanted to,” James recalled. “And he refused.”
After she was diagnosed, James said she immediately started researching treatment centers.
She opted to travel around 1,500 miles from her home in Seven Springs, North Carolina, to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for treatment.
“I knew that MD Anderson had a clinic that handled anal cancer, and I went there for that purpose,” she added.
From February to April 2021, James underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment for anal cancer.
James’ oncologists at MD Anderson, Dr. Van Morris and Dr. Emma Holliday, originally told her they hoped she would be cancer-free six months after treatment.
But in a fortunate twist of events, her cancer was gone in three months.
“I could not even envision getting married without them,” James told Good Morning America. “I often told them, ‘You’re working so hard to save my life … Why wouldn’t I want to celebrate this life that they have helped give me with them?” she said.
“So, it’s almost a no-brainer. They had to be there. I had to ask them.”
For Morris and Holliday, the James’ invitation was out of the ordinary — and they loved the opportunity to be a part of a former patient’s big day.
“It was among the easiest questions I’ve ever been asked as a cancer doctor by a patient,” Morris told ABC.
“As oncologists, we unfortunately are much more likely to get an invitation to a funeral than a wedding,” Holliday added. “So, this was just such a beautiful and a joyous celebration, and to say it’s something that I’ll never forget, those words don’t even do the feeling justice. It’s truly amazing.”
Sheri and Bill James married on June 11 in New Bern, North Carolina. The blushing bride said it was “such an honor” to have her doctors walk her down the aisle.
“[It was] the most beautiful moment of my life,” she gushed. “I felt like I couldn’t do it without them because I couldn’t celebrate life without the people that have worked so hard to give it to me. So, it was just magical to have them there.”