Jason Robles Photography
A bride said she couldn't imagine walking down the aisle without the doctors who treated her cancer.
Sheri James, 70, told ABC host David Muir that they were by her side as she married her partner Bill, 77, in New Bern, North Carolina, on June 1, as Good Morning America's Yi-Jin Yu reported.
During the ABC segment on Wednesday, Sheri said she was escorted down the aisle by Dr. Van Morris and Dr. Emma Holliday, who she said treated her for squamous cell anal cancer in 2021.
Sheri told ABC that she attempted to end things with Bill at the time of her diagnosis in 2021 because she didn't want to hold him back from his dream of traveling, but she said he "refused" and stayed by her side throughout treatment.
Jason Robles Photography
Sheri and Bill traveled around 1,500 miles from her home in Seven Springs, North Carolina, to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where she received chemotherapy and radiation treatment between February and April 2021, she told ABC.
She added that Holliday and Morris had told her they hoped she would be cancer-free six months after treatment. But to their surprise, the cancer was gone three months after treatment, Sheri said.
"I could not even envision getting married without them," Sheri told ABC of her doctors.
She added that it was a "no-brainer" to celebrate surviving cancer with her doctors by her side on the special day.
Holliday told ABC that they often don't get invited to weddings.
"As oncologists, we unfortunately are much more likely to get an invitation to a funeral than a wedding. 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," Holliday told ABC. "It's truly amazing."
"It was among the easiest questions I've ever been asked as a cancer doctor by a patient," Morris told ABC of Sheri's invitation to escort her down the aisle.
Jason Robles Photography
Images from the ceremony taken by wedding photographer Jason Robles show Sheri in a floor-length, sleeveless wedding dress with a sheer, pink shawl draped around her shoulders, while Bill wore a black tuxedo and vest, a white shirt, and pale-pink tie.
Holliday wore a knee-length, blush-pink gown with a white corsage, and Morris wore a black tuxedo with a white shirt, pink bow tie, and pink corsage to match Sheri's bouquet.
Sheri isn't the only patient to include medical professionals in her wedding.
Earlier in July, USA Today reported that a couple wed in a hospital in Georgia where the groom was being treated for severe chemical burns.
The groom works as a nitride operator and had been severely injured after slipping in hot molten salt on June 30, the publication reported. The couple weren't able to have their wedding at a venue in Georgia on July 22 as planned, according to USA Today, so staff organized a hospital ceremony and planned the decor and food catering.
