Holding firm to their faith, a God-loving couple not only honored their predestined connection to be a husband and wife but also overcame one of the toughest hardships of their life, together. The groom, who was battling cancer of the brain and spine, was declared cancer-free in August—just about four months after marrying his high school sweetheart in a hospital.
Hairstylist Madison Stroup, 24, and life insurance agent Zach Stroup, 26, live outside of Fort Collins, Colorado, where both were born and raised. But their wedding day was not the event they always envisioned. When Zach was first diagnosed with aggressive stage 4 cancer in 2020, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in his liver and lungs, the couple were beyond shocked.
“I wasn’t scared,” Zach told The Epoch Times, “I was just super angry because I felt like I had done everything right, health-wise. Madison was sitting there bawling her eyes out, and there was just nothing I could do about it but prepare myself for the fight to come.”
Madison added: “I don’t think I personally could have done it without having faith, trying to send my worries somewhere else, and trying to trust that God isn’t going to give us anything we can’t handle. I always told Zach, every day, ‘God gives his biggest warriors the hardest battles.’
“Faith has played a huge role in both of our lives, and it will continue to be that way. That is the stepping stone in our marriage as well.”
‘I Knew He Was a Fighter’
Zach went into remission in March of 2021 and the couple got engaged, but their fight wasn’t over. Later that year, Zach developed a tumor on his spinal cord, and in March 2022, after five rounds of chemotherapy, an MRI revealed that the treatment had stopped working. The cancer had spread to Zach’s brain.Madison said: “I felt like my worst nightmare was coming true. All of the worst thoughts were going through my head, thinking how am I going to do this life without him? But I knew he was a fighter.”
The couple had already postponed two wedding dates, owing to Zach’s cancer battle, in January and May of 2022, but Zach was still hospitalized.
“We really, really didn’t want to miss out on any opportunities,” she said. “I am so in love with Zach and my dream was to marry him; I didn’t want anything to happen and for us to have regrets, and miss out on the opportunity of being able to share our love under God.
“Our social worker was trying to bring some light into our lives because we were just so defeated. [She] brought up the idea, ‘Why don’t we have a wedding for you here?’ Zach and I looked at each other and we were like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it, why not?’”
Within 48 hours, nurses and social workers had rallied together, ordering a cake, decorations, and a bouquet for the bride for the April 15 ceremony. Madison’s parents collected hers and Zach’s wedding outfits, and Madison’s father, Chris, came to the hospital to help the groom get ready.
The Wedding
Madison remembers getting ready in the bone marrow transplant ward with her mother and the nurses, one floor beneath her husband-to-be, who was in the oncology ward.“One of the charge nurses came in on her day off and did my hair and makeup,” she said. “My dress wasn’t hemmed yet, because we had postponed our wedding, so she took a whole bunch of safety pins and pinned my dress. I remember going up to the fourth floor ... my dad’s standing there. Of course, he’s crying; I’m crying. Then all the other patients are standing outside of their rooms watching us get married. I start walking down this long hospital hallway, and I see all of these nurses and doctors. They all had their cameras out, and they were dressed up.”
Madison turned the corner to see Zach in his wheelchair, hooked up to his chemo treatment and a pain pump. But what she remembers best is the smile on his face.
“I knew that he was fighting so hard to just be there,” she said. “Being able to get married to him that day was the best day of my life. Even though it wasn’t the wedding that we initially thought, it really couldn’t have been any better.”
‘God Is Real’
Zach and Madison met in a high school catering class in 2015. Graduating the year before Madison, Zach “took a chance” and messaged her on social media. “We just fell in love so quickly,” Zach reflected. “It’s just been perfect ever since; she’s all that I could ever ask for in a wife and as a soul mate.”Madison said Zach was always a healthy person and never got sick. So when he began losing weight, complaining of achy joints, and had more frequent visits to the bathroom in February 2020, she took notice. Zach was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease two months later and expected to feel better with medication, but his weight loss persisted alongside night fevers and itchy skin.
She said: “We took him to the hospital thinking that maybe he was just having a really bad Crohn’s flare up. They did a CT scan, and about 10 minutes later, the doctor walked in and looked like he had seen a ghost. Cancer never crossed our minds.”
The couple have leaned on faith and family since the beginning of Zach’s cancer battle.
He said: “I remember back in February and March, when I was doing physical therapy every day, that was definitely the hardest time because I was the weakest then, the most immobile. I'd always pray like really late at night. And whenever I prayed, I always lost all my anxiety. I almost felt calm and I was actually able to go to sleep.
“That’s my testimony; it guides me to believe that God is real.”
The Battle With Cancer
After Zach’s initial bone marrow biopsy, PET scan, and lumbar puncture, he started treatments right away. He soldiered through six rounds of intense chemotherapy, but, contrary to doctors’ predictions, he started feeling worse. He dropped from 240 pounds to around 165 pounds, and by September 2021, a tingling in his feet started shooting up the back of his legs.Madison, who was researching Zach’s type of cancer, worried that he had a problem with his central nervous system. Zach’s oncologist suspected peripheral neuropathy from his chemotherapy treatment, but one day in November 2021, Zach woke up numb from the waist down. He walked into an MRI appointment, but by the time the scan was over, he was completely paralyzed.
He was transferred into the care of blood cancer specialists at Presbyterian St. Luke’s in Denver.
“We didn’t really have much time to think because two doctors, a PA, and five nurses come rushing in and started doing lumbar punctures, bone marrow biopsies, PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) line placements, and blood work,” Madison said. “The neurosurgeon said they had found a tumor in Zach’s spinal cord. They needed to operate right away, or he risked being paralyzed permanently.”
Zach pulled through surgery, and shifted his focus to working on the impaired mobility on the right side of his body. In the hospital for further chemo between January and March, he had to learn how to write, tie his shoes, brush his teeth, and go to the bathroom by himself all over again. He also suffered infections, sepsis, and a punctured lung.
Then, an emergency surgery for his perforated colon put his life on the line once again.
“His colon had a hole in it and was leaking into his body,” Madison explained. “From what we were told, perforations of the bowel have about a 40 percent mortality rate.
“I remember asking the nurse, ‘Is Zach going to die tonight?’ She grabbed me and told me, ‘We are going to do everything we possibly can to prevent that from happening ... you need to not give up on your husband, because he’s not going to give up on you.’ I took that seriously.”
The colorectal surgeon claimed Zach’s successful surgery was a “true miracle.” Zach was left with a feeding tube and ileostomy bag, reminders of his ongoing battle.
‘God on My Side’
Madison, who had been praying for Zach’s recovery every single night, shared that when they got the news that the lesion in Zach’s brain was “completely gone,” and that the lesion that was in his spinal cord was now merely some residual scar tissue, she almost didn’t believe it.“It was really hard for me to comprehend that chemotherapy and hospital visits were over with. We finally were at the light at the end of the tunnel; it was the most amazing thing,” Madison said.
Zach said: “I had so many different obstacles against me throughout the past five months where I probably should have passed away. But I persevered through all those, and I really felt like I had God on my side. When the doctor came in and told us that I was cancer-free, I felt like we finally received something positive. I knew I still had a lot to go, because I’m still in the process of recovering and trying to walk again, but that was one huge step to becoming normal again.”
What keeps Zach strong is the unconditional love of his wife, and the future they'll now be able to share together.
“I knew that once I get through all this, we live our lives happy, just everything that we ever wanted,” he said. “It was hard, but I kept looking forward to the end goal.”
