Cancer survivor marries man who stuck by her during battle
When Jillian Hanson and Max Allegretti met each other at the altar a week ago, they had already overcome more than most couples face in a lifetime.
At 25, Hanson was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer. Knowing she would face a battle ahead, Hanson gave Allegretti an “out” of their relationship in July 2017.
“He told me he would never leave my side and he never did,” she wrote in an essay.
The pair ended up getting married last Friday, almost two years to the date after Hanson began aggressive treatment for her breast cancer, reports “Good Morning America.” The couple, who became engaged on Hanson’s last day of chemo, were treated to the wedding of their dreams — free of charge.
In an essay reflecting on her long journey, Hanson writes: “This hardship made us grow closer together as a couple, and that is exactly why he is my person.”
Hanson and Allegretti, who met their senior year of college when she signed up for his intramural dodgeball team, stayed together throughout her treatment, which began in October 2017 at Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital.
Throughout the nightmare, Hanson says, her “hair thinned and fell out, and my skin turned white as a ghost,” but her beau remained by her side.
“He took care of me every day and reminded me how beautiful I was,” she writes.
Allegretti traveled more than an hour each way to be with Hanson at her mother’s house, where she recovered between treatments, and made sure to take his ailing girlfriend out to movies, as he told “GMA,” “to normalize the situation.”
Allegretti doubled down on his commitment to Hanson on her last day of chemo, Feb. 28, 2018, when he proposed surrounded by nurses and family. The whole thing was caught on camera by hospital staff, which Hanson declared “the ultimate high” in her essay.
But a shocked Hanson was in for one more surprise: Lauren Grech, a wedding planner and founder of LLG Events, whom Hanson met at a fund-raiser a year ago, wanted to give the couple one last treat: a pro-bono wedding.
Grech secured a venue, hair and makeup services, a wedding cake, a photographer and a videographer free of charge for the New Jersey couple’s big day.
The bride’s dream dress — a strappy, low-back number with a layered tulle skirt by designer Kenneth Winston — was also donated. That news, as well, was captured on heartwarming video.
“It’s been such a long and painful road, and there have been so many people there for us,” Hanson told “Good Morning America.” “I wanted to give Jill an amazing wedding, and there was no way we could have done it without [LLG],” adds Allegretti.
As for Hanson’s cancer, she explains her care team was “able to remove all the cancer” through 16 rounds of chemotherapy over five months, and she’s now “finishing infusion treatments.” She also says she went through fertility treatments to freeze her eggs, “since chemotherapy can lower fertility rates.”
When pressed for advice for newlyweds going through a similar thing, Allegretti told “GMA”: “Be there as much as you can for the other person and keep in mind it’s temporary, and you will get back to who you were.”
Read the full New York Post article here