Against all ODDS

Serena Novelli was devastated when her husband was given an incurable diagnosis - but he promised he wasn't going anywhere

- SARAH WHITELEY

Serena Novelli and her husband Adriano were childhood sweethearts. After meeting when she was just 16 years old, the pair fell in love and grew up together. They stayed together through thick and thin, and he was her biggest support when her beloved mum Jeanette was diagnosed with cancer. Serena couldn't imagine life without him.

'We met outside my college as he was dropping his friend off,' says Serena, 45, from Woking, Surrey. 'I poked my head in through the car window to say hello. Later, he asked his friend for my number. It took me a while to believe he was being serious but when I eventually handed it over, Adriano called straight away. We've been together ever since.'

She fell pregnant when she was just 18, and it only brought Adriano and Serena closer. After having Nathan in April 1996, Serena and Adriano, now 47, went on to have Alicia, now 21, Layla, 14, Theodore, 10, and Tobias, seven.

'We lived with Mum at first and she'd help us out, giving us £20 and babysitting the kids so we could go out as a couple,' Serena recalls. When Jeanette was diagnosed with a sarcoma in June 2015, and passed away a year later, the family was heartbroken. It was Adriano who helped Serena through her grief.

'There were days I just couldn't get out of bed, so he'd bring me cups of tea and sit with me,' Serena remembers. 'He'd look after the kids and make their dinner.

I wouldn't have got through it without him.' The next year, Adriano saved up and took Serena to New York - their first holiday alone. The couple had the time of their lives, going up the Empire State Building and wandering around Central Park. Then, just a year later, Adriano started to feel unwell.