During the spring of 2012, a Menifee, California woman named Ashley Bridges began feeling more intense knee pain and made a number of trips to her primary doctor, whose first assumption that it was either bursitis or arthritis. She was later told simply that she would have to deal with the pain.
However, by October 2013, the 24-year-old Bridges was sent to a specialist after her pain reached such a point that she was unable to walk and her toes were numb. After undergoing an x-ray, she was told by the doctor that she had osteosarcoma, a bone cancer.
She underwent surgery to remove much of Bridges’ femur and also replace her knee. Despite being instructed to begin chemotherapy treatments as soon as possible, Bridges chose not to begin the process.
That’s because Bridges was 10 weeks pregnant at the time, and was told that the child wouldn’t survive the treatments. Therefore, she went through her normal pregnancy and gave birth to a girl, Paisley, in July 2014.
However, Bridges’ untreated cancer had metastsized throughout the body, including her brain, and she was given months to live.
Due to that grim diagnosis, Bridges and her boyfriend, Jonathan Caughey, moved up their early 2015 wedding to November 2014. At the wedding, her six-year-old son, Braiden, walked her down the aisle.
Bridges is using different milestones to keep her motivated to not give up hope. After her wedding, her son’s March birthday followed, with her daughter’s first birthday in July is next.