Two-time cancer survivors find love through charity work

A two-time cancer survivor has described how she married her “absolute rock” and soulmate who was also diagnosed twice – after the pair met through their charity work.

Liv Shaw, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, was given a second cancer diagnosis at 23 having lost part of her leg to the disease in 2011.

Now 29, she first met her husband Sam at a Teenage Cancer Trust conference as a 16-year-old and was struck by “how funny he was” and how he “always knows how to lift my spirits”.

They started dating a few years later and “have never looked back”, marrying in Las Vegas last year.

Liv has Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) – a rare inherited condition that increases the likelihood of people developing certain childhood and adult cancers.

The operations manager, who lives in Reddish, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma – cancer of the bone – at the age of 14.

She had chemotherapy but was devastated to be told the cancer had spread into the tissue and muscle surrounding her leg bone, meaning she needed an above-the-knee amputation and a prosthetic limb fitted.