A YOUNG Scots mum lost her battle with cancer the day after she married her childhood sweetheart.
Lisa Ruthven, 22, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in October 2011, just three months before she got engaged to her boyfriend Robbie, 21.
The wedding was planned to take place this June but the young couple were forced to bring the event forward after her condition deteriorated rapidly this month.
Less than 24 hours after the heart-wrenching ceremony at Lisa’s bedside in Dalkeith, Midlothian, the young bride passed away.
She leaves behind the couple’s 22-month-old daughter, Orla.
Lisa had even bought a wedding dress two weeks ago but was too ill to wear it.
Today, the family paid tribute the “inspirational” young bride, who fought against the crippling disease for the last four months.
Lisa’s mum Diane Moffett, 41, said: “We were told it was terminal in October and there was nothing they could do and that she would be lucky to see Christmas (last year), which was a big blow to us all.
“She was such an inspirational girl and our hearts are all broken. She has been taken away so young when she had so much to live for.
Lisa, who had cancer of the bile ducts, was confined to her bed for the wedding ceremony but was able to sign her name on the paperwork.
Reverend Keith Mack from St John’s and King’s Park church in Dalkeith married the couple at around 10.30pm, who were surrounded by their close family.
And tomorrow, Reverend Mack will lead the funeral for the tragic bride, exactly one week after the ceremony.
Groom Robbie said: “Lisa managed to mumble “yes” during the ceremony when she needed to, which was all she had said that day, nothing before and nothing after- it was like she had saved all her energy for that.
The father of the couple’s child 22-month-old Orla said: “I still haven’t been able to look at her wedding dress.”
Lisa had been feeling ill for 18 months before the diagnosis but doctors believed she had Crohn’s disease.
She was diagnosed with the condition when she was just ten, but defied medical opinion when she had baby Orla when she was 17.
Mother Diane added: “Lisa was told at 17 that she wouldn’t have a family but then a wee miracle happened. She met Robbie – her first boyfriend – and they had Orla.”
The couple met in 2008 while working in the Scottish Widows in Edinburgh.
Robbie said: “We had always spoken about marriage but it wasn’t going to be until we were a bit older. I wanted to be engaged at 26 and married at 28 but after Lisa was diagnosed, I ordered an engagement ring.”
But when a 12-week stint of chemotherapy failed at the Western General hospital, and the cancer spread to her liver and stomach, the couple knew they did not have much time left.
Robbie added: “Lisa said from day one if she was to take unwell then I was to lift her up and take her to the registry office.
“We had been trying to say Lisa, ‘we need to bring the wedding forward’, but she was adamant it was going to be at the Norton House Hotel and Spa on the 16th of June.
“She put up a very strong fight.”
Before she passed away, the young mother bought a charm bracelet for her daughter Orla and even bought birthday cards which Lisa never got the chance to sign.
Mother Diane added: “Lisa was loving, caring and thought of everybody else apart from herself right up to the bitter end.
“She touched the hearts of everyone,” she added.
The funeral will take place at Mortonhall Crematorium Main Chapel tomorrow at 2pm.
