A TRAGIC bride lost her battle with cancer just three weeks after her dream Christmas wedding.
Amanda Callander, 22, was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2010, just weeks after husband had proposed to her.
The brave travel agent, from Rosyth in Fife, battled rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy but decided to bring the wedding forward after discovering she would have to return to hospital for more treatment in January.
Determined to wed before she lost her hair Amanda, who was known as Mandi, and Paul tied the knot at Dunfermline City Chambers on December 17, with the blushing bride describing it a “the best day of my life”.
But after just three weeks of wedded bliss Mandi lost her fight with acute myeloid leukaemia and passed away at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital on Thursday morning.
Her devastated husband paid tribute to his wife, saying: “She was constantly happy, right to the end.”
Just hours before she died Paul posted a message on Facebook to Mandi’s well wishers.
At 7.45am he wrote: “And the battle continues, love her so much.”
But by 10am his young wife had slipped away.
In a later message he wrote: “Mandi passed away this morning peacefully with all her loved ones around her. Thanks again for all the messages and support over the last two years.”
Void
Mandi’s sister Siobhan, 26, said: “She said it was the best day of her life. Mandi said ‘Every woman deserves to get married because they deserve to feel that special’.
“People can’t believe that someone so happy, bubbly and carefree has gone at just 22. Its everybody’s worst fear realised.
“But it’s nice that people have been so kind about it and are offering kind words.
“She stopped using her phone on the Sunday and by the Monday it wasn’t looking good.
“The spirit was still there. I came down on the Monday and the first thing she said to me was, Do I look reem [good]?
“That was one of the last things she said to me. That to me is a flicker of who she is, even though she was quite ill.”
Husband Paul described how Mandi’s energy meant the wedding was quickly organised.
He said: “When we got told on the on the Thursday she was going to hospital she didn’t want to get married without her hair. Thirty-six hours later the wedding plans were finalised.”
In his most recent Facebook tribute, he wrote: “It’s starting to feel real that I will never hold you in my arms or see your beautiful smile or hear your voice. I love and miss you so much xxxxxxxxx.”
Mandi’s parents Ross and Catriona O’Connor, said her death had “left a huge void” in their lives.
Catriona, 50, said: “She’s the one I couldn’t go a day in my life without seeing. She was very much mum and dad’s little girl.”
Ross, 52, added: “She never once complained about her treatment or what could happen.
Mandi will be laid to rest in a service at St Columba’s RC Church in Rosyth tomorrow morning
