EVERY bride's wedding day is special, but when Beverley Hodgson tied the knot on Saturday it was that extra bit special.

Beverley, 33, of Delves Lane, near Consett, County Durham, battled against leukaemia as a youngster and her wedding was something neither she nor her family thought she would live to see.

Her marriage to furnace worker Colin Rainbow, 29, of Tantobie, near Stanley, should have been held at Consett Methodist Church a fortnight ago, but was cancelled when Colin was taken to hospital because he was on the verge of slipping into a diabetic coma.

Beverley, who was diagnosed with leukaemia when she was five and underwent chemotherapy and drug treatments that have left serious stomach problems, has "died'' once and been on life support three times.

Beverley said: "It is a miracle. I didn't think, and neither did my family, that this day would come.

"Two weeks ago, when I should have got married, Colin ended up in intensive care. He caught a bug and was in hospital three days.

"He didn't quite go into a coma, but if he had been any later going into hospital he would have."

Beverley, who met Colin five years ago a social club, has raised money for research into leukaemia and liver disease. She has cirrhosis as a result of her treatment.

He mother, Dorothy, who lives opposite her in Delves Lane, said: "The wedding went off really well, it was lovely. We never though we'd see the day.''