A brave woman who defied the odds and got married while battling cancer has thanked the "guardian angels" at the Pilgrims Hospice after she was given the all-clear.

Katy Chapman-King, of Sewell Close, Birchington, paid tribute to the team in Margate for helping her during her toughest moments.

The 28-year-old, who was diagnosed with oesophagus cancer in 2014, received the results from her latest CT scan a week ago, giving her the all-clear.

While battling the disease, she spent time in the hospice, right up to the day before her wedding, then going straight back the following day.

Mrs Chapman-King said it took nine months to be diagnosed, despite displaying the symptoms and her father dying of the disease seven years earlier.

In July 2014, four days before the funeral of her now-husband Alex’s father, she was told the devastating news she had cancer.

"The hospice made sure I’d be able to get married, they are guardian angels" - Katy Chapman-King

“I was due to get married in the August,” she said. “After I was diagnosed I went downhill dramatically. I asked doctors not to start chemo until after my wedding and I also had to have lots of tests before I could start it,” she said.

“It spread to my lymph nodes. I ended up going into the hospice. I thought that was it, that was me done.

“That’s not the case though. People go in there for respite and pain management. I was in a state, I was being sick constantly. They were absolutely fantastic with me.

“When I first went in I was so scared. Then a lovely woman sat with me and held my hand all day. They have a cat and she was like a therapy for me.”

Mrs Chapman-King stayed there until her wedding day at Lympne Castle in Hythe.

“I thought about cancelling it but so much had been done already and we didn’t know if I was going to live,” she said.

“The hospice made sure I’d be able to get married, they are guardian angels.

“On the day of the wedding they sent someone to sort out my syringe driver, which pumped medication into me to stop the pain.”

The couple were married and spent the night at the Hythe Imperial Hotel. But Mrs Chapman-King went straight back to the hospice the following day.

A week later the chemo started and she then had half her stomach and her oesophagus removed.

But during that time the hospice were there to support her, even when she was in hospital or at home.