Newlywed Pendle teacher loses brave battle with cancer at 32 (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Newlywed Pendle teacher loses brave battle with cancer at 32

11:00am Wednesday 25th July 2012 in News By Chris Gee, Reporter

A TERMINALLY-ill bride who was determined to walk up the aisle at her dream wedding has died aged 32.

Kathy Morris’s family said the primary school teacher would leave behind a ‘legacy of hope and love’ after she battled cancer for three years.

When doctors told her she only had months to live, Kathy insisted on bringing her wedding forward, marrying fiance Carl Morris, 41, in February.

During the service she astounded the 200 guests by leaving her wheelchair to walk down the aisle towards her husband-to-be with the aid of crutches.

In her final months she also wrote a searingly honest and often humorous account of her experience of terminal cancer, which was published by Macmillan Cancer Support.

Speaking at the couple’s home in Bridgefield Street, Hapton, Carl said he had lost “the love of my life”.

He said: “We met four years ago in the village pub, The Railway, and since that night we’ve been pretty much inseparable.

“Kathy was a woman who made a good impression on everybody she met.

“She had friends of all ages and was loyal and supportive to them all. She was loved by so many.

“The word I keep using is frustration, that she was taken so young and that our married life had only just started.”

Carl said that he would always remember their ‘perfect wedding day’, which took place at Bolton School.

“The way it went was beyond Kathy’s wildest dreams,” he said. “She amazed everyone with her determination to walk down the aisle.”

Fewer than four weeks after the wedding, a deterioration in her condition meant she was admitted to hospital, where she remained until spending her final weeks in Pendleside Hospice.

Kathy, who was a cat lover and enjoyed attending pop concerts, died peacefully on Monday afternoon.

Alongside her were Carl, her parents John and Marion Nutter and her two closest friends, Leah Massey and Faye Ibbitson.

Marion said her daughter had loved being a teacher.

She said: “ She wanted to be a teacher since the age of ten and had a natural affinity with children.”

Kathy worked at several schools in the Pendle area, her final post being a Maths teacher at St John Southworth Primary in Nelson.

Marion, 54, said: “I am and always will be incredibly proud of my daughter.

“She faced up to the disease and it’s challenges and got on with her life. She had a joyous personality which touched the people she met.”

Since her diagnosis with cervical cancer, Kathy had also campaigned for annual smear tests for women.

Carl said that her writing on the Macmillan Cancer Support website proved therapeutic to his wife and had inspired other sufferers.

He said: “Kathy wrote about her experiences like only she could. She was forthright, not scared to talk about the harsh and upsetting realities of cancer, but always with affection and good humour.”

Arrangements for Kathy’s funeral have yet to be finalised.

Her family have requested any donations in her memory to be sent to Pendleside Hospice.

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