Bride who suffered 'unbearable' accident the day before her wedding is forced to marry in a very unusual location
Lisa Whitaker, a florist from Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, was due to walk down the aisle on August 4 at Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull, off the Scottish coast, until she fell into difficulty on an outing with her son and other close relatives.
The 39-year-old's family had joined Lisa and her fiancé, Ian Whitaker, also 39, for a caravan holiday on the Inner Hebridean island, with the wedding scheduled for mid-way through the trip.
But the day before the nuptials, during a dry spell after a storm, Lisa and her family decided to get some fresh air, only for her to slip on wet grass and break her leg.
The mother-of-two said Ian drove her to Mull and Iona Community Hospital where doctors X-rayed her leg before informing her that she had broken her tibia, ankle and femur, and would need to be air-lifted to the mainland for treatment.
Lisa recalled that the air ambulance had trouble landing because of the storm, meaning that her transfer was postponed to the following day.
The bride-to-be, who had her heart set on wedding Ian as planned, contacted their registrar to ask if he could marry them at the hospital - and he was happy to oblige.
The hospital staff helped to make the couple's day special by decorating the room with lights left over from Christmas and garlands made from surgical gloves, leaving Lisa to don her wedding dress and marry her beau on August 5.
A few hours later, she was transferred to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley by air ambulance.
After doctors performed surgery on her leg, Lisa started physiotherapy and she is now hoping to be discharged this week.
Lisa recalled: 'Me and my son who is seven were walking along laughing at how much water there was that came off the hills.
'As I turned the corner, it wasn't even much of a slope at all, my foot must have slipped on the wet grass. That's all I can put it down to.
'As my foot flew it stopped and then it turned back on itself right underneath me and I heard the whole of my leg just break. I heard the snap.
'I was trying to keep it all together and not pass out. I knew instantly that it was broken. All that was going through my head was, "tomorrow is my wedding day."
'They managed to get me up on this picnic bench. I couldn't put any weight on it. It was a floppy mess. It looked like there were no bones in the bottom of my leg. It was awful.
'They say childbirth is the worst pain. This has taken over that pain. It was unbearable. I was adamant that I was off to the castle. That's where we were getting married.
'The nurses were like, "Lisa, we can't get you there. We can't even get you there in a wheelchair because there's no access. It's all steps up to the castle."
'We didn't have to carry on with the wedding, we could have postponed it until next year. Many brides wouldn't want anything other than perfect whereas this was perfect for us.'
Lisa and Ian went on their first date to the cinema more than 14 years ago and have been engaged for 10 years.
They decided to get married in Scotland because it is their favourite place to enjoy a caravan holiday.
Fortunately, their six guests were able to watch them say 'I do' in hospital while the wedding venue agreed to transfer Lisa's booking to next year and the registrar said he will renew the couple's vows for them then.
Lisa said: 'We'd seen it [the venue] on a previous holiday, we'd been to look at it. Scotland is our favourite place to come with the kids and the Isle of Mull means so much to us. It was a dream location for us.
'I am devastated that I couldn't get married there in the end but the staff at the hospital who were with me made it perfect.
'At the end of the day it's about us not about the materialistic surroundings. The nurses were just fabulous.'
Doctors in Paisley inserted a rod in Lisa's leg during surgery on August 7 and she is now practising walking on her leg.
Lisa said: 'Obviously when a bride thinks of her wedding day it's not like this. 'There were a lot of emotions taking off waving to my husband after only just being married.
'I'm a florist so I should have been making my bridal bouquet about half an hour after the incident.
'In the end my dad and my daughter made them for me and they were so much more special. To be honest if I'd not gotten married I would have been even more gutted I think.
'The way it all happened was perfect for me and has brought us even closer than ever. The vows are for better and for worse. We've been through the worse.'
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