Donations pour in for new bride, 22, and her 23-year-old husband who married in heart-breaking hospital bed ceremony after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer
- Cola Glenny married Felix in Medway Maritime Hospital in Kent on Friday
- They had been told Felix's bowel cancer was terminal just a week earlier
- The pair decided to get married as soon as possible
- They have two children - two-year-old Ralph, and Pearl, four months
- When Felix found out about his illness, he was most concerned about providing for his family - and his friends have set him up a charity page
- Generous well-wishers have since taken the page's total past £33,000
- X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne has reportedly given £10,000 as well
'It was perfect': The two were married in a ceremony at Medway Maritime Hospital, where Felix has been since November
Readers touched by the story of a new bride who married her husband in hospital after finding out he had terminal cancer have flooded a charity page with donations for his young family.
Since the MailOnline told the story of Cola Glenny, 22, and Felix Glenny, 23, who wed in a bittersweet ceremony at Medway Maritime Hospital in Kent, a fund to care for the young family has exceeded £33,000 after a massive surge in donations.
The two made their vows to one another on Friday watched by friends, family and their two children - two-year-old Ralph and four-month-old Pearl.
They had found out the Felix's bowel cancer was incurable just one week earlier.
After he fell ill, a close friend of the couple set up the Felix Foundation, through which well-wishers can donate money which will be used to provide for his young family in the future.
The total raised on the page, which is growing constantly, stood at £33,406 just after 9pm this evening.
But, according to Ashley Clark, 20, who runs the page, an additional £10,000 has been donated by X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne, a cancer survivor herself, after she read their story.
According to Ashley, the star sent in the donation accompanied by a note saying: 'Dear Felix,
From a survivor, never give up the fight and hope. God Bless you & your family. Love, Sharon Osbourne.'
Felix was admitted to hospital in November after suffering for several weeks with what he first thought were stomach cramps.
But after being taken in to Medway Maritime Hospital on 11 November, doctors found a large tumour in his bowels.
Terminal: Felix found out his cancer was fatal last Friday and the couple, parents to two young children, wanted to get married as soon as possible
Although they were able to remove it, further tests showed that the cancer had spread and Felix had only weeks to live.
After finding out last week that the cancer is terminal, Felix and Cola decided to marry as soon as possible, and invited their friends and family to a ceremony conducted by the hospital chaplain on Friday afternoon.
Speaking to MailOnline after the wedding, Cola said: 'After a second operation last Friday they discovered that the cancer had spread everywhere. That's it now, there’s no stopping it.
'When they told us I had to leave the room – it was too much to take it.
'After it all settled down and we got our heads round it as much as we could, Felix just said he wanted to get married as soon as we could. We arranged it for yesterday.
'It was crazy because we were really happy, but it was so emotional.
'It was a lovely day and we’ve been thinking about it today, saying “It was perfect and it couldn’t have gone any better”.
Up and about: Felix was able to leave his hospital bed to cut a wedding cake and kiss his bride in front of friends and family
'We had talked about getting married even before he was ill - and when we found out the cancer was terminal we wanted to do it straight away.
'Felix managed to get out of bed and we went over the the social club and had a ceremony – the chaplain from the hospital came over and gave us a blessing.'
'It was a really nice day and everyone really helped us out. All of our family was there and a lot of our friends.'
who is also known as Ryan, met through mutual friends in Lower Stoke,
Kent, in August 2010.
They quickly fell for one another and within a
year the couple had moved in together and Cola was pregnant with her
first child, Ralph.
Proud father: Felix before he was hospitalised, holding his son Ralph, left, and baby daughter Pearl
Touched: Sharon Osbourne, a cancer survivor herself, Tweeted Cola and Felix's story last night. She has reportedly since donated £10,000 to the couple
Cola, a hairdresser, and Felix, who works for a water supply company, lived happily together for two years and had a second child, Pearl, who is now four months old.
But only weeks after his second child was born, Felix was struck with awful stomach pains and couldn't make it to work. But when the couple visited the hospital and called doctors, they were repeatedly told that Felix was not seriously ill.
Their concerns were ignored despite the fact that three of Felix's family members have recently died of bowel cancer - his mother and grandfather last year, and his aunt in 2007.
Cola said: 'He was ill
two weeks prior to being taken in to hospital, we kept going up there
and they kept turning us away, saying it was a bug.
'We had three ambulances out. We rang 111 and we told him all his symptoms, and they sent ambulances. Twice they took us to hospital.
Young love: Felix and Cola met in 2010 and have two children together, Ralph, aged two, and Pearl, four months
they said it was a kidney infection, another time they said it was
irritable bowels and one of the other times they didn’t even take us to
the hospital because they said there was nothing wrong with him.
A&E they said it was a sickness bug. I told him he has a family
history of bowel cancer, but they just weren’t interested. He finally
got taken in on the 11 November.
'Finally we went to a medial centre and we said we’re not going anywhere until we know
what’s wrong with him.
'We’re not being fobbed off again and again – we
basically said to people at the hospital and said we’re not going
anywhere until it’s sorted.
Big day: Cola Glenny in her wedding dress outside of the hospital
'Then a surgeon had a feel of his tummy and could feel something in his bowels, and that’s when they did the CT scan and found it was cancer.
'It was awful finding out – we’ve got two small children. He’s been in hospital since. In the four weeks since he had his tumour removed the cancer spread quite far.'
despite being struck by such a desperate illness, Felix's thoughts
remained with his young family throughout - and how he would provide for
Cola said: 'He’s quite a family man, he insists he brings the money in. So he went to work two or three times while he was ill, but couldn’t really do much, because he had major stomach cramps which would go and come back
'For the last couple of days before he went to hospital he was just in bed all day and didn’t eat for two weeks.
'Felix’s best friend Ashley – when he went into hospital he was really concerned about money, as he has a family and a house to keep up.
'That was the only thing he was talking about before his first op, saying he wanted to make money for us.
'Then Ashley started to GoFundMe website, with a little bit about what’s going on. It’s now raised more than £7,000.
'It’s lovely – I’ve had so many people message me saying they’re thinking of me and I don’t even know them.
'Felix is really comfortable at the moment. He’s got his head round everything and just wants to spend time with the kids, me and his family.
'He’s been really really positive, and is trying to think of the
'He doesn’t want to get upset in front of the kids, he doesn’t want to let them know what’s going on.
'Especially Ralph, who is starting to
understand that his dad’s in hospital.
'But he’s been really positive, and since finding out it’s terminally he’s been exceptionally brave.
'The kids and I will be in the hospital on Christmas Day.
'Pearl is too young to know what’s going on, but Ralph sort of understands. When we go to see his dad he says "poorly".
'It will be his last Christmas with them, so we want to make it as special as possible.'
- Donations to Felix, Cola and their family can be left on their GoFundMe page.
Most watched News videos
- Pervert runs behind woman mowing her lawn with his shorts down
- Moment a baby orangutan is rescued in a palm oil plantation
- Emergency services seen at the scene on Hythe beach, Kent
- Racist man in Uganda attacks hotel staff and call them 'n*****s'
- American missionary Jimmy Taylor enters jail in Uganda
- American missionary Jimmy Taylor prays with kids in Uganda
- CCTV captures moment man rescues puppy from drowning in pool
- Shanann Watts speaks on her husband and her health challenges
- Moment Loose Women announce Stormy Daniels has pulled out of show
- August: Met Office forecasts wind and heavy rain in places
- Video emerges showing final moments of Brit who died in Ibiza
- Thousands say goodbye to Big Lizzie as carrier leaves Portsmouth