A couple from Turkey's northwestern Yalova province decided to hold their wedding at the hospital where the bride's mother was receiving treatment for cancer.
Bride Evra Sakar and her fiancé Gökhan Akgün surprised 55-year-old Ayla Sakar, who had been admitted to Yalova State Hospital for three weeks to receive treatment for breast cancer.
The mother-of-the-bride had been sorely disappointed to miss her daughter's wedding, and was surprised to see the bride and groom enter her hospital room on the day of the wedding, accompanied by the wedding officiant and witnesses.
The couple got approval to hold the ceremony there from doctors, who affirmed the importance of patients maintaining high morale to recover more quickly. The wedding participants wore facial masks to protect against the spread of germs.
"We organized something like this to boost my mother's morale because she was in the hospital," the bride told local media. "Everyone was so happy. Now you saw how beautiful and happy it made her."
The groom added, "We've learned by experience that having strong morale is very important in this disease. We hoped if we did this it would help her heal a bit."
Ayla Sakar's husband Sakettin, a retired teacher, said his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, and he has been helping with her treatments ever since.
"It has almost been 15 years. Her illness worsened in recent days because of an infection," he explained. "Considering that the situation might be critical, we wanted to do the wedding ceremonies in our hospital before the marriage of our daughter."
