Mum, 44, reunites with childhood sweetheart 30 years after she fell for him at 14… but is diagnosed with cancer weeks later
A MUM who found love with her childhood sweetheart 30 years after they first met feared she'd been robbed of her "fairytale ending" when she was told she had cancer just weeks later.
Elaine Vivers, 44, from Scotland, first fell for Ian Vivers when she was just 14 after they met in an amusement arcade.
They went to different schools but managed to make things work - until Elaine was grounded after missing her curfew one night.
When she was finally allowed out two weeks later she sped round to see Ian, but to her devastation he'd moved away.
"It was like he’d vanished off the face of the earth!" she recalled.
"I was devastated and for the next couple of decades, I saw and heard nothing of Ian."
Although Elaine went on to marry and have a son, now 25, the relationship didn't work out and she got divorced.
Twenty years later Elaine happened across Ian's picture on Friends Reunited, but as he was in a relationship she didn't contact him.
Fast forward another decade and Ian popped up in her People You May Know feed on Facebook - and this time he was single.
The pair got in touch, exchanged messages and then swapped numbers.
On their very first phone call, the giddy pair chatted all night until 7am. "We couldn't get enough of each other," Elaine laughs.
The couple arranged to meet near Ian's home in Wales but just before she was due to travel south, Elaine found a lump in her breast.
"I’d never checked my breasts before as I’d always associated breast cancer with older women so I wasn’t too panicked," she said.
"I booked an appointment with my GP who referred me for a mammogram.
"I’m only 41, I told myself. It won’t be anything serious."
She didn't tell Ian at first, but eventually did and he was supportive.
Their time together went well, with Ian ending the weekend by telling Elaine how strong his feelings for her were.
"We pressed ahead with our arrangement and when we saw each other in the flesh, there was no doubt about it - the spark was still there," she said.
"I was on cloud nine as we spent the next few days getting to know one another again.
"It was a far cry from our first evening together as a couple of kids at the amusement arcade."
Leaving Ian to return to Scotland was a wrench for Elaine, especially as her appointment with the doctor was looming.
The mum was told she had two cancerous lumps in her left breast and would need it removed, followed by a course of chemotherapy.
Elaine was astounded as she thought she'd be given the all clear.
She called Ian, who struggled to cope with the news.
"‘I’m sorry Elaine," he said. "But I don’t think I can cope with this, it’s all too much,'" she recalled.
"It was a sucker punch. I’d waited 30 years for this reunion - would cancer rob me of my fairy tale ending?
"I was devastated but I had to respect Ian’s decision. It was a lot to take on after one date.
"But he called back in a couple of hours.
"‘I am going to help you through this,’ he said. ‘I will be by your side the whole way.’
"I was stunned. ‘You said you weren’t interested,’ I cried.
";‘I was in shock,’ he explained. ‘I wasn’t thinking straight. I’ve had time to go over everything in my head and I want to stand by you, I don’t want to lose you.’"
Within a few months Ian had given up his Welsh home, closed his business and moved to be with Elaine.
Elaine had a mastectomy in 2012 and four gruelling months of chemotherapy, which meant she lost her hair.
Ian was there through it all, and when Elaine was given the all clear a year later he whisked her away to Fuerteventura to celebrate.
It was while they were on holiday that Ian popped the question, stuttering to get the words out because he was so emotional.
Elaine pointed out he hadn't got down on one knee - so he did, and she accepted.
"The patrons and staff let out a loud cheer as Ian kissed me passionately, then held me in his arms. I was in heaven," she recalled.
"We married in a beautiful ceremony in May last year and our wedding vows were particularly poignant when we promised to be with each other, in sickness and in health.
"We’d already been through thick and thin."
Now the pair couldn't be happier. They have their own house in Scotland and Elaine has been involved with work for Scotland.