Jillian Hanson met her boyfriend Max Allegretti after joining her college dodge ball team in her senior year and the two soon became inseparable.
They dated for three years before the then 25-year-old Jillian received some news that tore her happy world apart. She was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer.
She knew she had a tough road ahead of her and selflessly gave her boyfriend an ‘out’. But for devoted Max this wasn’t even a consideration and he stood by her for two years while she went through a grueling treatment program.
On her last day of treatment Max surprised her by proposing to her in her hospital bed at Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital.
Max said Jillian had given him a chance to get out before things got intense but he immediately dismissed the “offer.”
“Jillian told me that it was going to be hard and that she did not know what to expect with everything and if I couldn’t handle it, she wanted to know now,” he told HuffPost. “I completely disregarded everything she said.”
Throughout her tough treatment, losing her hair and her skin becoming deathly white, Max was by her side telling her she was beautiful.
On February 28 2018 Jillian, from New Jersey, along with Max and her family went to the hospital for her last day of chemo.
But Max had planned the biggest surprise to make her day even more momentous.
“I talked with Jill’s friends and family, and we decided how we could make her last day of chemo even better,” he said. “And then we planned everything out for the proposal with Memorial Sloan Kettering, the hospital where she was receiving treatment.”
As she sits in her hospital bed surrounded by loved ones and nurses, Max says: “Jillian Hanson, will you marry me?”
Jillian is so shocked and all she can say is “What? Wait no, really?!” before eventually saying “Yes!”
The couple got married in October but that wasn’t the only surprise Jillian received that year.
After a chance meeting with wedding planning company LLG Events founder Lauren Grech, the couple were gifted a wedding, thanks to Lauren and many generous vendors.
Lauren was so inspired by their story and said: “We wanted to give her a celebration and give them a celebration of happiness,” according to Good Morning America.
The big-hearted wedding planner secured a venue, hair and makeup services, a wedding cake, a photographer and a videographer free of charge.
The couple got married on October 18 in Tinton Falls, New Jersey and Jillian is now cancer free.
Max had some useful advice for any couple experiencing the trauma that they have endured: “Be there as much as you can for the other person and keep in mind it’s temporary, and you will get back to who you were,” he told Good Morning America.
Looking back on their beautiful day, surrounded by all their loved ones Jillian told Huffpost: “The one word I would use to describe it is magical.”
Find out more about this beautiful couple’s story in the clip below.
These two are the embodiment of hope, loyalty and determination, they are an inspiration to us all.
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