A set of photos showing a cancer patient getting married has gone viral on Facebook.
The photo set is of 21 year old Katie Kirkpatrick, a cancer sufferer, getting married. She is pictured getting chemotherapy, then putting on her earrings while her shoulder blades jut painfully out from her backless wedding dress. In a particularly poignant shot, she is shown resting her head on the back of a chair while the festivities go on.
An oxygen tank accompanied Katie at her wedding, and she was wheeled, not walked down the aisle. Along with diamond earrings, she also wore an insert in her nose for oxygen. The caption accompanying this photo montage states that Katie died five days after her wedding, and reminds the reader not to live a complicated life.
This remarkable photo set was taken on January 11, 2005. Before her wedding, Katie had already suffered from organ failures and was dependent on morphine to make life bearable. She also had to endured hours of chemotherapy a day.
Her battle with cancer began in 2002 on Valentine's Day, when she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Katie was just a freshman at college then. She kept on studying, but suffered another setback in '03, when she was diagnosed not just with "an inoperable lung tumour", but one wrapped around her pulmonary artery. Katie could have given up then, but she didn't, opting to even take part in a cycling fundraiser for cancer patients the year after. Another year after that, she got married.
In a world where material items and tangible goals are all that matter, it is a struggle every day to remember that it is the intangible things in life that matter most. Take a moment each day to think of all the love you receive in your life - then give it back, just like Katie did.
Katie didn't lose her battle to cancer - she beat it by doing everything she wanted to, with all her heart.
The photo set is of 21 year old Katie Kirkpatrick, a cancer sufferer, getting married. She is pictured getting chemotherapy, then putting on her earrings while her shoulder blades jut painfully out from her backless wedding dress. In a particularly poignant shot, she is shown resting her head on the back of a chair while the festivities go on.
An oxygen tank accompanied Katie at her wedding, and she was wheeled, not walked down the aisle. Along with diamond earrings, she also wore an insert in her nose for oxygen. The caption accompanying this photo montage states that Katie died five days after her wedding, and reminds the reader not to live a complicated life.
This remarkable photo set was taken on January 11, 2005. Before her wedding, Katie had already suffered from organ failures and was dependent on morphine to make life bearable. She also had to endured hours of chemotherapy a day.
Her battle with cancer began in 2002 on Valentine's Day, when she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Katie was just a freshman at college then. She kept on studying, but suffered another setback in '03, when she was diagnosed not just with "an inoperable lung tumour", but one wrapped around her pulmonary artery. Katie could have given up then, but she didn't, opting to even take part in a cycling fundraiser for cancer patients the year after. Another year after that, she got married.
In a world where material items and tangible goals are all that matter, it is a struggle every day to remember that it is the intangible things in life that matter most. Take a moment each day to think of all the love you receive in your life - then give it back, just like Katie did.
Katie didn't lose her battle to cancer - she beat it by doing everything she wanted to, with all her heart.
You can view more photos of Katie before and during her wedding here: http://bop.nppa.org/2006/still_photography/winners/OES/67966/134496.html
*back into the abyss of death*
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