Newlyweds to welcome son, tackle cancer

The wedding service for Shawn Elsmore and Charlie Nicholson, held in the Auckland City Hospital chapel where Charlie is being cared for. Photo / Michael Craig

An expectant mother who wed after a grim cancer diagnosis is due to give birth today - and then must travel to Australia without her newborn for treatment.

Gisborne woman Charlie Elsmore married her partner Shawn on Saturday, just days after finding out she has late stage melanoma at 31 weeks of pregnancy.

The 38-year-old noticed two moles on her chest last month. Tests showed they were a symptom of the cancer also in her liver, pancreas, spleen, lungs and brain.

She arrived at Auckland City Hospital last Wednesday. Her son was to be delivered by caesarean at 8:30 this morning.

Her husband - who proposed at her hospital bedside and married his bride in the hospital chapel - said his wife would likely travel to Australia later this week to receive lifesaving treatment that was not available in New Zealand.

Mr Elsmore said their baby boy, who they plan to name Ryder Michael Dangermouse Elsmore, will have to stay in neonatal care in Auckland for up to three months.

"The doctors have given us every reason to believe he is going to be a successful case and a healthy young man."

Mr Elsmore had to decide whether to stay with his newborn son or accompany his seriously ill wife to Australia.

"I am petrified. I don't want to lose either of them and I am being torn between staying here with our new, little, born baby to make sure he's all right and gets through this himself, but I need to be there with my partner because anything could happen."

He said there was concern about his wife travelling to Australia as the pressure in the plane could affect the tumours in her brain, which is why she was required to give birth before travelling.

Her prognosis was unknown, he said. "They don't know if the treatment will work but every indication is that it will because the type of melanoma that she has is the type that the drug is designed for specifically."

The couple wed on Saturday in front of friends and family who travelled to Auckland to watch the bride and groom cast aside their troubles for the day. Mrs Elsmore was upbeat. "With everything good that has been happening, I can't help but feel an amazing force of positivity so I am just going to keep striding."

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