This terminally ill bride married the love of her life in her hospital bed just three days before she died.

Nina Marino (19) from Florida, US, died at the St Joseph’s Children’s Hospital on 6 September from an undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma – a type of soft tissue cancer, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The 19-year-old, who was diagnosed in May 2017, has been friends with Joey Williams (21) since the age of eight. The pair started dating in June last year, reports People.

They were hoping to get married on 4 September but their plans changed when doctors said Nina wouldn’t survive the night.

Although the young woman had been suffering from terminal cancer, she was never given a time frame for how long she’d live until that day.

It was then said by the doctor that if they want to get married they should do it immediately.

“The doctor informed us that if we wanted to be married we should do it that day. It was a lot all at once,” William said. “Nina just said, ‘Okay, let’s do it.”

A wedding ceremony was promptly organised and before the couple knew it, Nina was in her wedding dress with a bouquet in her hands and a flower headband lying in her hospital bed.

The ceremony took place in the intensive care unit as Nina was too weak to walk to the hospital’s chapel, reports Mirror.

About 30 of the couple’s close friends and family members were invited along with the hospital staff.

The initial photographer was unavailable, so Nil Patel of Patel Creative was called to the hospital.

“It wasn’t the wedding of our dreams but it was the wedding that made our dreams come true.

“It was really important to her. It was one of the things she absolutely wanted to do, one of the things I wanted to do,” William added.

Nil shared the story of Nina and William with Love What Matters and said it was the hardest shoot he’d ever done.

“But a sea of lessons learned to last a lifetime,” Nil said. I was an absolute emotional wreck on the inside while trying to act calm and professional on the outside, the joy and strength everyone showed was something very profound to me.

“The entire family showed a type of strength for Nina I’ve never seen before in my life.”

After Nina was diagnosed in 2017, her cancer quickly spread to her lungs, leading to the removal of the tumour from her head and seven rounds of chemotherapy.

William was happy to have married his childhood best friend.

“I’d wanted to do that since we started dating. It’s something we’ve known we wanted to do. I didn’t want her to die, but I knew that it was probably going to happen.

“So I wanted to do everything we wanted to do. She said in the hospital she didn’t want to die without us getting married.”

William went on to say, “The hardest part has been not having her here. She’s been a part of my life since she was 8 years old. She was amazing.

“She made everyone smile. She loved everyone and everyone loved her. I don’t know how she did it. But she genuinely made everyone she came into contact with absolutely adore her.”

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