Sad tale of bride who was widowed nine months after her wedding

Birmingham, England:  David and Ava Jenkins tied the knot following a ten-year love affair but he was diagnosed just two weeks after their big day.

A bride was widowed just nine months after her wedding – as her husband was struck by cancer within a fortnight of their marriage.

David and Ava Jenkins tied the knot following a ten-year love affair. But the joy of what Ava called their 'perfect day' was to be tragically short-lived, the Birmingham Mail reports.

After returning from their dream wedding in Devon, the car valet’s persistent cough was diagnosed as lymphoma.

He underwent several rounds of chemotherapy but died nine months later, aged just 28.

Mum-of-two Ava, also 28, said: “Our whole married life was spent in and out of hospital. It was a massive shock when the doctors told us he wouldn’t make it.

"It doesn’t feel real. I see pictures of him and I get upset – I can’t believe he’s gone.”

The couple met on a night out on Broad Street in Birmingham city centre in 2003.

David popped the question four years later and they married in Woolacombe, Devon, on July 5, 2012.

Marks & Spencer worker Ava said David was first told he had a virus when he fell ill.

She recalled: “He’d had a cough for several weeks and was going to and from the doctors but they thought it was a virus.

“But when we got back from the wedding his heart rate was found to be high and he was referred to Solihull Hospital. He was finally diagnosed with lymphoma.

“At first they said it was treatable and they could cure it. But whenever he had chemo it kept coming back.

“He fought it for nine months. He was given a last-chance treatment from America so all our hopes were on that but he was already very poorly.”

David, from Solihull, died on April 27 last year.

“It was a real shock,” said Ava, who is mum to children Isabel, eight, and Nathan, four. “He always made everyone laugh. He would do anything for anyone, he was just that sort of person.”

To support David’s family, friend Adrian Court has entered an off-roading obstacle race on Weston-super-Mare’s beachfront on October 17.

“David was into his motorsport so I can’t think of a better way to remember him,” said Adrian, from Shirley.

“I wanted to do something to help his children so all the money raised will go into a trust fund for them when they are 18. Hopefully he’ll be looking down on us and smiling.”

Ava added: “I think it’s a wonderful thing to do for the children and Dave would be really proud. I can’t thank Adrian enough.”