It was intended to be just a joke and nothing serious when 20-year-old Emma Mayor joined Tinder. But she knew the seriousness of it after meeting and dating James Catlow through it.
After a few dates with the 21-year-old who worked in wealth management, she made a horrifying discovery.
Emma, a student at Central Lancashire University in the U.K., gave a hug to James and felt a lump on his back.
“I thought it would be a cyst, but I also realized it could be something more serious,” she said, according to The Mirror.
And sadly, it was.
James was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that develops in your bones or on the soft tissue around your bones.
He had to be treated for 13 months, including traveling to the United States to receive Proton therapy.
“Before I spotted the tumor, I had only known James for five months after friends put me on Tinder as a joke,” Emma said according to The Mirror.
“James always tells me I saved his life. But if that’s the case, I didn’t just save him, I saved our future together.”
In March, James got the cancer ‘all clear’ and looks forward to a future with Emma. The pair are planning to travel in order to spend more time together.
Wonderful to see James Catlow ring the end of treatment bell today. James was treated in our Teenage and Young Adult unit. The NHS also referred him for proton beam therapy treatment in the USA. Good luck James! @eotbuk #cancercare #protonbeam pic.twitter.com/vv1CtKPBpM
— ClatterbridgeCC NHS (@CCCNHS) March 22, 2019
“We are happy and excited about what is to come and that, hopefully, will be a home, marriage and a family one day. We have joked about the great story we will have to tell our children, or the speeches people will be able to tell on our wedding day.”
Wonderful to know that James is now free from cancer and he can now look forward to all the stuff that a 21-year-old should be looking forward to.
