Groom reads his wedding vows at fiance's funeral

Six weeks after Ryan Dixon proposed to his sweetheart Kate Wignall, she was diagnosed with aggressive skin cancer. Photo / Instagram

A man who was just weeks away from getting married has heartbreakingly read his wedding vows out at his fiance's funeral

Ryan Dixon and his teenage sweetheart Kate Wignall were supposed to get married late April.

They had planned their life together, but their lives were turned upside down when Wignall was diagnosed with stage four melanoma just six weeks after Dixon proposed to her.

Doctors gave Wignall one year to live, so the couple from Cornwall, UK, decided to bring their wedding day forward to live out their dream.

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A post shared by Ryan Dixon (@ryan_dixon96)

But a fortnight before the marriage, Wignall died.

In a heartbreaking yet beautiful act, Dixon decided to fulfill the couple's dream and read out his wedding vows at his wife-to-be's funeral.

"Although these are the vows we did not get to speak, they will be ours forever, to cherish and keep," he recited at her funeral on May 4.

"I feel so privileged to have felt true love. To have loved you and been loved by you, to have lived our lives so fully, together.

"You have already given me the world, Kate. I will always love you and my heart will always belong to you."

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A post shared by Ryan Dixon (@ryan_dixon96)

The first sign something was wrong with Wignall was when she suddenly experienced agonising chest pains last May.

After going to the doctor, they found she had skin cancer that had already spread to her brain, spine, spleen, kidney and lungs.

Her diagnosis rocked her, but her biggest fear was telling her partner.

"It was heartbreaking telling Ryan.

"We'd been on such a high and now our lives were suddenly and sharply going in a different direction."

At first, she responded well to treatment but not long after spending an "amazing" Christmas with Dixon and her family at their home, her condition took a sharp decline.

After discovering more cancer, Wignall started having bad headaches and becoming sicker and experiencing high temperatures.

She was admitted to hospital on March 7.

"Just two days into being in the hospital, Kate's oncologist phoned to say there was a serious bleed on her brain caused by a tumour," Dixon told the Sun.

"They told us she might only have a couple of days to live."

She was sent home to see out her final days before she died just two weeks before their wedding day.

"We didn't quite make it. Only three-and-a-half weeks after being at home she passed away with me, her mum, her dad and her sister by her side at home," Dixon said.

"Kate's last memories were planning our wedding which is a slight comfort as she was so excited about it.

"She was very strong-willed, and she didn't want to get married at home. She wanted the venue and the dress and, typical Kate, she wouldn't have it any other way."

On May 30, one year after their engagement, he returned to the place he proposed to Wignall, scattering her ashes alongside her family.