A UK couple came to Jacksonville in April as David Leek and Bobbie Godden, and will be leaving Mr. and Mrs. David Michael Leek Sr.
The two married Wednesday on a staircase overlooking UF Health Proton Therapy Institute’s lobby in Jacksonville.
Leek and Godden arrived in Jacksonville about a month ago for Leek to get Proton therapy, a type of radiation treatment. Leek was first diagnosed with a spinal tumor, called a sacral chordoma in 2014. After having it removed, it came back. Following Leek’s second surgery his doctor recommended he follow-up with proton therapy.
The couple has been together for 13 years and have two kids. David even has Bobbie’s name tattooed on his wrist, but they had never married.
“But obviously four years now of cancer, so then getting offered proton therapy in this country and then [to] come here and I think it was just the whole thing of having this treatment, closing one chapter and opening another,” David said.
Bobbie walked down the staircase aisle to piano music, wearing a flower crown and carrying a bouquet of flowers adorned with a seashell and starfish. The two exchanged vows in front of patients, doctors and friends they’ve met along the way.
And as for picking the lobby of a medical building as the venue, David said it was just the right call.
“You always see these films where people come over to America and they’ll go and find an Elvis Presley, that sort of thing, an impersonator and get married like that,” he said. ”And we talked about getting married on the beach or something like that.”
But they kept landing back on UF Health.
“I feel that we’ve uplifted people,” Bobbie said. “Everybody who comes here is pulling one way or another and for us, to do what we’ve done, it’s taken their mind off of that and given them something else over the last four weeks to focus on.”
David has six more weeks of therapy left and he hopes it’s the cure.
“We’ve never had a lot of luck in our lives, obviously getting cancer is not a lot of luck, but we just feel that the love and everything else it starts giving you a bit of a different outlook on life,” David said. “And there is someone over there watching over you. There must be someone watching over to give me this treatment and then making this day happen and obviously meeting so many lovely people in Jacksonville honestly, really.”
The Leeks were the first to ever tie the knot on-site at the Institute. Another patient wedding is scheduled at the same location on May 31.
Reporter Lindsey Kilbride can be reached at lkilbride@wjct.org, 904-358-6359 or on Twitter at @lindskilbride.
