This wedding dress saved my life

BEAMING Christina Quilter has more reason than most brides to love her beautiful wedding gown - without it she might be DEAD.

For when she tried on her £1,000 white satin dress its tightly ribbed corset sent a searing pain shooting through her right breast.

Worried Christina, 27, had it checked out-and doctors broke the news that she had a particularly agressive form of breast cancer.

But after an urgent mastectomy and chemotherapy she was finally able to walk down the aisle with her partner Dan.

"There is no doubt my wedding dress saved my life," she said. "If I hadn't been wearing it, I'd never have had the early diagnosis. I was told that was crucial."

Mum-of- three Christina was so excited when she went for the first fitting of her fabulous, crystal-encrusted dress. But when she bent down in the dress and the corset dug into her bust she cried out in agony.

"It was a really hot pain," she said. "I'd never felt anything like it. It felt as though my breast was burning. I knew something must be wrong, but I never imagined it would be cancer.

"I've got no history of it in my family and I'm young, so I never imagined it would be anything so serious." In fact she had three aggressive tumours.

"When the specialist told me, it felt as though my world had just collapsed around me. I thought I wouldn't be around to see my children grow up, and I just burst into tears."

Christina had the operation to remove her right breast in April 2007 and started her chemotherapy six weeks later.

Just a fortnight into the treatment she and Dan, a print finisher, walked down the aisle as planned at St Mary's Church in their hometown Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk, in front of 100 guests.

STRUGGLE: Christina during her treatment

She said: "I had considered postponing the wedding, but it gave me something to look forward to.

"Luckily I hadn't lost my hair by then. I'd worn a special cap for the first few weeks of the chemotherapy, which had helped protect it.

"I was still really scared and not that well, but I tried to put it all behind me and it was a wonderful day.

"I always knew I would make my wedding, but didn't think I'd be alive to see my first year anniversary."

Now, 23 months after her shock diagnosis, doctors are confident about her future. Christina, a full time mum to Cameron, ten, Aaliyah, five, and three-year-old George, has been told she should make a full recovery and she plans reconstructive surgery next year.

She added: "Dan and the children really kept me going through it all - I knew I had to get better for them. And he always makes me feel beautiful no matter what.

"I'm very lucky my cancer was caught so early and I was able to have treatment.

"Now my most treasured possession is my wedding dress - because without it, I don't believe I would still be here."