When Andy Samuel found out his daughter was getting married, he knew he would do absolutely anything to be well enough to walk her down the aisle.
For Andy, 65, this would be no easy task. He is partly paralysed on one side, was diagnosed with cancer in 2022, and has lived with renal failure since the 1980s. Over the past year the former youth sports coach has been supported by St Christopher’s at his home in Thornton Heath, Croydon.
But yet, in October 2025, pushed in his wheelchair by wife Alison, he was able to be alongside their daughter Hannah as she got married, thanks in part to the support of St Christopher’s.
Two hospice staff both travelled to the wedding and back with Andy, so that wife Alison, 60, could focus on Hannah on her special day.
Andy says Hannah is still “my princess”, even though she’s married, and adds he still worries about her when she goes away. He says: “I always do whatever she says when she comes round.”
Alison says: “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when we came in together.”
She adds: “I was just so grateful to the hospice that they could come with him because it took such a weight off my shoulders.
“He’s my husband of almost 40 years so I was still running around after him, even though the nurse was telling me not to, but it really helped me that they were there for him.”
Andy wasn’t able to read his speech at the wedding and so Alison read it for him, starting with his planned quip: “‘Hello everyone, I’m Andy’.”
Alison says: “It was wonderful for Hannah to have him there. It’s of course not what you envision when you are a little girl imagining your dad walking down the aisle but it was so special. I don’t think it mattered, what mattered was that he was there.”
“The fact he couldn’t stay for long also didn’t matter, because he was there for the crucial moment when they ask ‘who gives this woman away’, and he could say ‘I do’.”
“Everyone was crying, I was crying, he’s such a well-loved man.”
They had been planning how to get Andy to the wedding since Hannah’s husband asked them for their approval of his plans to propose in November 2024.
“Andy was in hospital,” Alison says. “And so he came to the hospital and asked us for her hand in marriage. He was really nervous but we were so happy.”
“Ever since then we’d been building towards that day so it was wonderful.”
Alison, who is a nurse, met Andy when they were both training in healthcare in the 1980s and lived next door to each other in the student accommodation. Andy was an auxiliary nurse, now referred to as a Health Care Assistant, as when he applied to train as a nurse his renal failure was identified in his health check.
Alison says: “Andy has size 16 feet and I remember moving in and my mum and dad looked at the shoes outside his dorm and went, ‘Who the hell owns those?’.
“They’re like boats, they’re not shoes. Little did I know he would be my husband,” she adds.
The couple says the support of the community palliative care team has been a huge support for Andy, with visits from clinicians and other professionals. Andy has a hospital bed in the family’s downstairs living room and is being supported by community nursing teams from St Christopher’s with regular visits and calls.
As part of the above-and-beyond part of hospice care, Andy also had music therapy at home.
“He really enjoyed it,” Alison says, adding: “The support St Christopher’s has offered us has been fantastic, from the basic care needs to the above-and-beyond care of getting Andy to our Hannah’s wedding.
“It shows how vital hospices are to the healthcare system and we’re so grateful for the support.”
Thank you to CMotion Films for letting us use Hannah’s beautiful wedding images.
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