After six years battling cancer, father-of-four Ray Few is sick of talking about being ill.

So to give him and his partner of 18 years something positive to look forward to, he asked her to marry him.

Now his bride-to-be's parents are raising funds to help the loving couple say 'I do'.

Ray has multiple myeloma, a incurable bone marrow cancer that was diagnosed after he was found unconscious in his car two days after his son Mikey, now five, was born.

While partner Sally Bester was on the maternity ward with Mikey, Ray was fighting for his life in intensive care in the same hospital. His liver and kidneys started to shut down and one of his lungs collapsed due to pneumonia. Doctors later told him he had been close to death. Bone marrow tests confirmed he had cancer.

"The wedding will give us something to both look forward to, not just us but our family and friends who have been with us through thick and thin" - Ray Few

The 46-year-old of Dargets Road, Lordswood, said: "When I went for treatment one of my vertebrae collapsed and I was paralysed for a few months.

"I couldn't walk, so I was in hospital for longer and missed my son Mikey growing up in his first months."

Ray's condition means he is much more vulnerable to viruses, pneumonia and other infections. He has spent the past six years in and out of hospital and has to go for daily blood transfusions and tests.

He has been given chemotherapy and stem cell treatment but his body did not respond to the last course of chemo, so he is awaiting news of a new drug which might help.

He said: "With my weakened immune system I can go from being sitting down feeling perfectly fine to shaking like a leaf and struggling to breathe, in less than an hour, I feel like a ticking time bomb.

"None of the care seems to work which is frustrating. I'm now in the lap of the Gods awaiting a clinical trial."

Ray was in hospital with pneumonia last month when he called Sally, 42, and proposed. She laughed, but then Ray called Sally's mum Sandra Bester, who was over the moon.

Ray said: "I was in hospital and I thought 'why not?'. I am sick and tired of talking about the same thing. After I'd called Sandra I told Sally she had to marry me because her mum was looking forward to it.

"The wedding will give us something to both look forward to, not just us but our family and friends who have been with us through thick and thin."

Sandra and husband David have set up an online fundraising page to help pay for the wedding. The couple, who are also parents to Jade, 18, Jack 16, and Demi, 11, hope to have a low-key ceremony and reception later this year.

Ray added: "Even if I have to be wheeled down the aisle, we will do it. I don't think it will come to that but you never know with my body."

Visit the couple's Go Fund Me page here.