A COURAGEOUS mother of two died just 11 hours after marrying her partner while she lay in her hospital bed. Lynn Hutchison and Geoff Marchant, who met working for St Neots Town Council, were married in Hinchingbrooke Hospital. The couple, each marrying f

A COURAGEOUS mother of two died just 11 hours after marrying her partner while she lay in her hospital bed.

Lynn Hutchison and Geoff Marchant, who met working for St Neots Town Council, were married in Hinchingbrooke Hospital.

The couple, each marrying for the second time, had planned to marry in Bedford's Swiss Garden on Saturday.

But Lynn, 42, mother of Nick, 18, and Vikki, 16, was diagnosed with leukaemia in February last year.

She was the officer manager at St Neots Town Council for four years until her leukaemia became more aggressive in May. They met when Geoff, 54, was foreman for the council.

Councillors and staff at the council are now planning a walk and a charity bingo night in St Neots in September to raise money for a leukaemia charity in Lynn's memory.

Geoff said: "It all happened so quickly, her condition had deteriorated in just five weeks.

"I asked the doctors if Lynn would make it to our wedding day and they said no. I told my daughter I had to get married that day.

"I asked Lynn if I could pull off a miracle, would she marry now. She smiled and said, 'Yes please'. My daughters Katie and Sally and Lynn's sister, Clair were amazing. They arranged it all and managed to get a registrar to marry us that evening.

"The hospital staff and site manager were fantastic. They went round the wards collecting flowers and balloons to make the room look nice and they even got some cake from the hospital kitchen to use as wedding cake.

"Meanwhile, I rushed home to pick up Lynn's wedding dress and get changed into my suit. We had to lay the wedding dress on Lynn, because of all the tubes she had attached to her body. She dug so deep to muster the strength to say her vows - she must have been in pain and she must have been scared, but she never showed it or stopped smiling."

"In the early hours of Sunday morning, Lynn was wide-awake but getting weaker by the hour. She looked at me with her beautiful eyes and spoke but I couldn't make out what she'd said. I asked her to say it again and with each shallow breath she said "I love you."

"Those were the last words Lynn spoke. She slipped into her lasting sleep."

Geoff said he held his new wife in his arms until she died.

"I was talking to her all the time. I didn't want her to be afraid and I told her that her dad would come for her and she'd be safe with him. I sung our special song, Lullaby, and she stayed with me until the very last line: 'I won't rest until I know that you will be here in the morning by my side.'"

Geoff said that that despite weeks of having her body pumped with drugs Lynn never once complained.

"We used to call the tablets 'The Poison' because they seemed to make her more ill. She seemed fine and then she would take these pills and feel ill. She was an amazing lady, wife, mother and friend and so very brave. She was a real fighter and would play her illness down to her children. She said to them don't worry it's no biggie and insisted the doctors had probably got it wrong."

Lynn and Geoff were engaged last July.

Geoff said: "We formed a beautiful friendship which turned into the most amazing relationship - it was the best thing that ever happened to me. There was something about Lynn that meant I couldn't wait to be with her every day. Before we met each other, we were both unhappy people but together we were amazing. We never once had a cross word and we started every day with a hug and finished it the same. I will miss her so much."

Lynn's funeral was held at Bedford Crematorium with more than 100 mourners followed by a wake at St Neots Conservative Club.

Margaret Sharp, St Neots Town Council deputy clerk, who plans to take part in the walk said: "Lynn touched so many of our lives and we have all been left devastated and shocked by her death. She was such a lovely person both as a colleague and a friend."

Councillor Pat Gregory, last year's Mayor of St Neots, who worked with Lynn said: "She was tremendously courageous - she must have been in pain but she never once showed it. She was a pleasure to work with and she always had a smile for everyone.