Tricia McDougall got her wish when she saw her only daughter married at Broughty Castle.
Tricia, who has advanced cancer, looked on with pride as her 16-year-old son Antony gave away his sister Victoria to her partner Grant Fettes on Friday.
“I feel amazing that I am here and it is happening,” said Tricia, who lives in Tayport. “My daughter is getting married.”
The 48-year-old mum left the hospice in St Andrews Community Hospital last week, determined to make it to her daughter’s wedding.
Tricia is battling incurable colon cancer and has lost four stones over the last two months.
A mix-up over the booking meant Vicky arrived for her wedding half an hour before the city registrar and had to tour around Broughty Ferry in the wedding car until it was time for the ceremony to go ahead.
Groom Grant Fettes, Vicky’s partner of seven years, accepted the blame, saying he made the booking by email and gave the wrong time.
“We are both a bit scatty,” he said, as he waited nervously for the registrar to arrive. And he was relieved to see his stepfather James Hutton arrive back at the castle ahead of the registrar, having made a frantic dash to Perth to pick up Grant’s birth certificate.
“The ceremony can’t go ahead without the certificate,” he said. “It’s the only thing I had to look after today and I left it behind!”
However, all’s well that ends well and the bride was eventually able to make a stunning entrance, wearing a short white dress.
Tears flowed when Victoria saw her mum standing waiting to welcome her at the entrance to the castle. Tricia bravely refused the waiting wheelchair and insisted on standing to greet her daughter as the bridal party made their way up the long, cobbled approach to the castle.
After the ceremony the new Mr and Mrs Fettes and their guests celebrated in the nearby Woodlands Hotel.
As we reported last week, Victoria and her aunts are behind a new charity, Tricia’s Wish, which aims to create an alternative healing centre for cancer sufferers in Fife.