'Terminally ill' groom waits until wedding day to tell guests he was misdiagnosed

'You could hear a pin drop. Everyone looked like they were taking seconds to register what was going on then the room erupted into cheers and crying'

Jack Kane was given just weeks to live but then discovered he was actually suffering from a non life-threatening and treatable neurological condition (North News & Pictures Ltd)

A groom who was told he had weeks to live, stunned guests on his wedding day by revealing he had been misdiagnosed with terminal cancer.

Jack Kane, 23, was diagnosed with a fatal tumour on his spine on 13 October, after initially visiting doctors for back pain.

Facing a race against time to get married before he died, the accounts manager, from Billingham, Teesside, decided to propose to his girlfriend Emma Clarke, 23, a few days after he received the devastating news

The set the date for 23 October. But three days before their wedding, doctors told him he was actually suffering from a rare yet treatable neurological condition called Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO).

Mr Kane said he was afraid of “jinxing the good news” so decided to wait until his wedding day to announce to 130 guests: “I’m not terminal”.

He said: “It took me so long to digest the news that I wasn’t dying. I had prepared myself for the worst. It wasn’t until a few days later that it really hit me. During my speech at the reception the room just exploded when I made the announcement.”

His wife Emma said you could hear a “pin drop” after he revealed the good news.

“Everyone looked like they were taking seconds to register what was going on then the room erupted into cheers and crying,” she said. "Jack decided to tell everyone at the wedding because some of his family live and work away. We’d previously delivered the news he was terminally ill by making individual phone calls.

“We thought that it would be better to share this good news face-to-face with everyone.”

The couple had started to come to terms with saying goodbye to each other before the shock news, she added.

“When we were told Jack was going to die we thought ‘let’s just go for it’ and planned the wedding in eight days,” she said. “When we found out that Jack wasn’t terminal it was a bittersweet emotion.

“We had always prayed that a miracle might happen, but when we were told his condition was no longer terminal we didn’t want to get our hopes up too much.”

Mr Kane had been under medical care for back and leg pain since August, but doctors had struggled to find out what was wrong with him.

An MRI scan later revealed he had tumour on his upper spine and he was told it was terminal.

However, just eight days later, Mr Kane was told doctors had made a mistake.

He is now undergoing rehabilitation to fight the NMO, which causes inflammation of the spine and the optic nerve.

He hopes to be able to strengthen his legs and believes he will be back home in a month.

North News and Pictures