In the next few pages you will find a heart warming and sad story about a young couple who were very much in love. This story has become worldwide thanks to the staff at the Mirror and local papers in America but we feel that the message has got lost in all the sensationalism.I mean, papers are in the business of selling.This site is here to promote the awareness of Testicular Cancer. And of course as a tribute to Peter Croft.
This is the story of Peter and Terri Croft.
The story begins on the 14th February 1997. Peter was working as a DJ in Gillingham Kent. Terri was a regular clubber. When they met it was love at first sight; they hit it off straight away and soon they were spending their entire time together enjoying the normal things couples do. 2 months into the relationship, Peter noticed a lump on one of his testicles and because this is obviously a sensitive area for a bloke to talk about, he didn’t go to the doctors until a month later.
After lots of tests Peter was diagnosed as having testicular cancer and started treatment straight away. From then on Peter was in and out of hospital having treatment and tests and more treatment and more tests. But throughout this whole ordeal not once could you look at Peter and not see him smiling. He had an infectious smile no matter how sad you felt for him or how much pain he was in he would never show it.
Terri was working as a cashier when they met and was understandably upset at the news. She was only 17 and my instant thought was that she would leave him. Not because she was a nasty person just the fact that she was so young and I couldn’t see her committing herself to Peter. But how wrong I was. It turned out that Terri was the best thing that ever happened to Peter. They were so much in love that Terri hardly left his side. They ended up moving in together and although Peter was travelling from their home in Gillingham to Guys hospital in London frequently, they didn’t spend longer then a night without each other.
I must say at this point that I have never seen a couple more determined to be together (no matter what the odds) than Peter and Terri.
Over time Peter had lots of operations to try and stop the cancer spreading they started off by removing the infected testicle, which they thought would be the end of it. But, after tests showed that the cancer had spread at an alarming rate he had to have more operations then I can remember. The one that really sticks out is when they cut his neck open and cut down his chest. By this time the cancer had spread to his chest so the op was to see if they could get at the infected lumps. The operation didn’t go well and left Peter very weak. But Peter came out of hospital later that month smiling from ear to ear.
After numerous operations and none too successful they decided to give Peter a Stem Cell transplant. This involved taking away Peters immune system completely and blasting him with high doses of Chemotherapy. He was in isolation for a month but still the smile wouldn’t budge. After the Stem Cell transplant the hospital decided to give Peter a break. He was still very weak but he and Terri decided to make their dreams come true. They booked a holiday and planned a dream wedding on a sunny Miami Beach. This was to be the perfect day. No guests, no family and no invites whatsoever just a young couple very much in love doing what they dreamed of, getting married on the beach. A day to remember…
Peter was given the all clear from Guys to go on holiday, but the insurance company wouldn’t cover then for Peters condition. But they didn’t let that stop them. On the 7th of January they flew to Miami to start a 3-week holiday with their wedding five days into it on the 12th. They had a great 1st week and the wedding was all set to go ahead as planned.