Terminally Ill Patient Marries Girlfriend From His Hospital Bed

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Being diagnosed with terminal cancer wasn’t going to stop Keith Borum from marrying the love of his life. Borum recently married his long-time girlfriend in his hospital bed at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, located on Long Island, after nurses and medical staff raised the money for a wedding celebration complete with rings, flowers, and cake.

“He’s everything, he’s my life… he’s my better half. So why not marry him?” Nina Borum, the newlywed wife, told WABC.

The couple has been together for three years, but Borum was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma 18 months ago. At the beginning, he fought the disease with hope for recovery; but recently, doctors gave him bad news — his cancer was terminal, and he didn’t have much time left.

“He’s been really going through so much and he can’t walk,” Nina Borum told ABC News. “It’s hard on him. He’s really hard…It’s just sunk his spirit.”

But she also noted that their wedding day was beautiful. “The whole thing was great,” she said. “I don’t know what my favorite moment was. I couldn’t imagine how great it could be or would be. The staff just outdid themselves …We couldn’t have done it no better.”

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a cancer that begins in the lymphatic system, where tumors develop from lymphocytes, or white blood cells. According to the American Cancer Society, some 71,000 people will be diagnosed with NHL any given year.

The hospital staff gathered around Borum’s bed as the couple got married. Afterwards, they felt proud to have helped raise funds for the celebration. “We had things donated from different people that we knew, the flowers, the cake, invitations, rings,” said Christina Ware, a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital. “We actually raised money for the rings ourselves.”

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