‘Love conquers all’ – Wakefield couple marry on intensive care unit

When 49-year-old David Fontana told his girlfriend he loved her for the first time, Jennifer Rush’s hit song The Power of Love was playing in the background.

Nine years later, the same track was playing as Joanne Stringfellow, 55, walked down a corridor at an intensive care unit to marry him.

The pair, who married at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield just 24 hours after they were told to say their final goodbyes, have been speaking to the BBC.

“We thought it would be something nice to do before it happened,” Mrs Fontana said.

Mr Fontana has a rare autoimmune condition impacting the lungs and is classed as being in single organ failure.

When Mr Fontana’s dependency on an oxygen machine became more severe, he was told there was little more medics could do to help him.

“It was a big shock, and we said about getting married,” Mrs Fontana said.

Newly married Mrs Fontana said hospital staff “did everything” to make the South Elmsall pair’s wedding on 29 April feel special in difficult circumstances.

Mr Fontana had been using a CPAP hood to assist with his breathing, but they instead fitted him with a nasal cannula for the wedding to allow the couple to kiss.

Overcome with emotion upon seeing her groom’s face, Mrs Fontana ran down the makeshift aisle at the hospital in West Yorkshire.

“When we got to the door I was so pleased to see Dave’s face that I just let go of my dad’s hand and ran up and kissed him,” she said.

Six of the couple’s friends were present at the service, a poem supplied by the registry office was read and the hospital canteen provided a cake.

Mr Fontana’s ward room was decorated by hospital staff without the couple’s knowledge.

“The day before they had been running around with the banners and balloons trying to avoid me,” Mrs Fontana said.

“To be fair, that day, you probably could have smacked me in the face and I would not have even noticed because we were absorbed in ourselves having had that news.”

Against all odds, Mr Fontana’s health has improved since the wedding and he has been moved to an acute care ward.

He described the experience as “surreal” after watching back a wedding video made by hospital staff.

“Here I am three weeks later, still alive and kicking,” Mr Fontana added.

While it may not have been the wedding the couple usually would have planned for, the pair described it as “very special”.

“I keep telling everybody that love conquers all and it is the love and the care between us that has spurred him on, though science will probably say that it was the drugs kicking in,” Mrs Fontana concluded.