When this pair of teenage lovers, age 17, found out that his Ewing Sarcoma had come back, they knew what they wanted to do… get married. The couple quickly became engaged this Easter weekend, and have set a date for a joyous wedding this summer.
“We asked the question what would we regret if I heard the worst news that I started getting worse and worse and were to pass away. What would I regret not doing in my life? And the only thing that I could come up with was marrying Mollie, and she felt the same way,” Brady Hunter said about their big decision.
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Mollie Landman and Brady Hunter, age 17, who are getting married while Hunter fights Ewing Sarcoma
After his initial round of treatment, Hunter’s cancer went into remission. “After months of long stays at the hospital due to chemotherapy treatments, leg salvage surgery, and radiation, I was ‘cancer free’,” he continues.
But it came back in 2018. “About a year went by, and the cancer unfortunately returned with a vengeance. I now have numerous cancer spots in my spinal column, right arm, both shoulder blades, both upper legs, right calf, both lungs, pelvis, ribs, and possibly more that were not visible on the scans,” Hunter writes. “I have been continuing treatment for 13 months now, but none of these chemotherapies have worked as well as my treatments did in 2016.”
Ewing sarcoma is a type of tumor that forms from a certain kind of cell in bone or soft tissue. Ewing sarcoma may be found in the bones of the legs, arms, feet, hands, chest, pelvis, spine, or skull, and it's most prevalent in children and young adults. It's the second most common type of bone cancer in children about 200 children and young adults are found to have Ewing Sarcoma per year.
About 70% of children with Ewing Sarcoma are cured, while teens who get Ewing Sarcoma between 15 and 19 have a survival rate of 56%. Children whose diagnosis is found after the cancer has spread have a 30% survival rate, and larger tumors or tumors located in the pelvis, ribs or spine are less likely to be cured, according to St. Jude's Hospital.
Hunter’s sarcoma has been up and down ever since his relapse, but his and Landman’s marriage is a way of confirming the couple’s love through it all.
“It was so fun just dancing with him and then becoming best friends, and just loving him ever since,” Landman said about their first falling in love.
And Hunter felt the same way. “I just knew pretty early that it was special,” Hunter added.
For Hunter, his cancer diagnosis, and Landman’s reaction was a big part of his decision to pop the question. “Just her being by my side for all that, when she really didn’t have to. It was just how selfless she was. Just being there and loving me, and doing everything that she can to help me. That was pretty much when I knew that she was the one,” Hunter said.
And for Landman, there was only one clear answer. “I love Brady more than anything, and I always, you know, since I met him in 7th grade, I had dreams of getting married and just growing old together, so it was just something that I definitely wanted to do. And I didn’t have a second thought about it,” Landman added.
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