An Indiana teen battling terminal cancer has tied the knot with his high school sweetheart after being told he has only months left to live.
Senior Chase Smith, from Indianapolis, was first diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, an aggressive cancer that forms in bone or soft tissue, in 2014. He battled and defeated additional bouts of cancer in 2016 and 2019.
He was given just three to five months to live.
The senior took his final diagnosis as an opportunity to assess his priorities in life.
He and his girlfriend, Sadie Mills, also 18, are very much in love, and they had planned to marry after college. Sadie attends Mooresville High and plans to pursue a diving career, and Chase attends Indian Creek High and was once a nationally ranked swimmer.
After learning that their time together would be drastically cut short, however, the teens decided not to wait a moment longer to say their vows. Miraculously, the couple’s families channeled their support into helping them plan a beautiful wedding ceremony in just four short days.
“She is able to calm me down in a lot of scenarios when nobody else can,” the high school senior continued, admitting that he and Sadie had barely spent more than a day or two apart since their relationship began.
Sadie praised Chase for being “so sweet” and “very polite.”
“He’s a good Christian boy,” she added. “We just fell in love with each other’s personalities. Now, he is all that matters to me.”
On April 29, Chase and Sadie got married in a small, intimate home ceremony. The high school sweethearts said their vows at the end of Sadie’s parents’ driveway, the very same spot where they had shared their first kiss six months earlier.
In moving photos from the ceremony, Chase can be seen struggling to hold back tears as his bride walks down the makeshift aisle toward him. The teen later described the day as “pure joy.”
Insisting that their wedding was prompted by love, and not his terminal diagnosis, Chase explained, “It was more just a wakeup-call of, hey, God wants you guys together. What’s the point of waiting if you already know?”
“This is like a Hallmark love story,” added Chase’s mom, Kelli Smith. “A Nicholas Sparks love story. You just don’t see love like this.”
Newlywed Sadie said that she, Chase, and their families are praying for a miracle together every single day. “We pray that Chase would stay on this earth longer so we can bring more people our story of love,” she said.
