SO MUCH TO CELEBRATE

This Joburg couple's wedding plans were on hold for four years as their little girl fought cancer – now they're married and she's in remission

- BY JACQUES MYBURGH PICTURES: FANI MAHUNTSI

HE DIDN'T think it was possible to feel happier – the love of his life had said yes to his marriage proposal and the future beckoned bright.

But fate had other plans for Bronson Friedman and Megan Harrington-Johnson: just weeks after Bronson popped the question the couple's four-month-old daughter, Mackenzie, was diagnosed with leukaemia. Their lives came to a standstill, their days marked by endless hospital visits and nights of nerve-shredding uncertainty.

It broke their hearts to see their baby girl undergoing endless rounds of intensive chemotherapy. For eight months she was in hospital, fighting for her life and twice, to their horror, doctors told them to prepare for the worst.

Throughout this traumatic time the thought of seeing his beloved fiancée in a wedding dress didn't cross Bronson's mind.

“Our world was limited to the house and the hospital,” he says. “All you think about is your child and all you wonder about when you wake up is whether you'll have to say a final goodbye to her today.”

That was nearly three years ago. Today Kenzie is a lively four-year-old, tearing around the house with her three-year-old sister, Harlow, her life-threatening illness barely a blip on her memory.

“It feels like another lifetime,” says Megan (39), who's a lawyer. “It's almost strange to be able to say our lives are completely normal now.”

Even after doctors gave Kenzie the all-clear, the fear remained that the cancer might return, so everything – including their wedding plans – remained on pause.

It was only in October that they finally felt ready to tie the knot.

For Bronson (33), a director at a financial firm, it was an emotional moment when he saw Megan walking down the aisle with their daughters as her flower girls.

“All those bad memories, the sleepless nights, the heartache, just melted away,” he says. “Right then and there I realised we could now just be an ordinary family.”