Bride-to-be in desperate race to marry childhood sweetheart after being given months to live

A brave bride-to-be who has been told she has just months to live is determined to marry her childhood sweetheart before she dies.

Donna McMahon, 43, from Moodiesburn near, is fighting against stage 4 secondary , which has come back after four years in remission. After being told the devastating news just last week, she is facing one final round of immunotherapy in an effort to delay the progress of the disease - but faces a slim 20% chance of success. She's now determined to finally with fiancé Kenneth Cushen, 41, who has been with her throughout her health struggles.

Donna told the : “It hasn't really sunk in yet that I’m dying. It was only a week ago they confirmed my cancer had returned.

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“When they told me I just burst out crying, I was devastated but now I just feel numb.

“I start immunotherapy on Thursday. It is a new type of treatment that has only been in for about a month.

“It only has a 20 per cent positive response rate. If I’m not part of that 20 per cent then I only have months left to live. There is nothing else they can tell me right now.

“I’ll know in the next three weeks if the immunotherapy has worked. But it will only just buy me more time.”

Donna was first diagnosed with cervical cancer during the Covid pandemic in July 2020. She endured gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and brutal radiotherapy, and was cancer free by April 2021.

However, she suffered life-changing side effects from prolonged radiation treatment that fused her organs together and left her battling a deadly infection, forcing her to spend eight months in hospital.

She was told this month that her cancer had returned after suffering pain in her abdomen.

The couple got engaged in 2021 after Donna finished her cancer treatment.

They had met at secondary school in Kirkwall, Orkney, and rekindled their love 13 years ago after a childhood romance.

Having set up a to raise money for their dream wedding, Donna said: "I bought my dress a few weeks after he popped the question.

"All I want to do now is spend as much time as possible being his wife.

“If it wasn’t for Kenneth I don’t know how I would have coped.

“I couldn't have asked for better. He's been by my side through every step of it. He’s got his own construction company but he’s hardly worked the last four years. He’s been my full time carer.

"It has been a really rough few years and now I just want to make the most of the time I have left.

Donna is also a big Celtic fan, and dreams of visiting Celtic Park one last time when they lift the Scottish Premiership trophy again this year.

She added: “There is so much I’d love to do.

“To see Celtic again one last time would be really special. I managed to get tickets for trophy day last year and I’d love to go back.”