Bride honours her dad's last wish

Ruth Lockwood-Sorsby, and her husband Mark brought their originally planned wedding date forward to last summer so Ruth’s seriously ill dad could be by their side. They tied the knot at Rotherham Hospice just a week before Geoff Lockwood lost his battle against stomach cancer.

In his final days, Geoff made his daughter promise that the fairytale wedding that was planned for the following January would go ahead.

While she was preparing for her second wedding, Ruth chanced upon her dream dress at Bluebell Wood hospice’s Rotherham charity shop.

Ruth, 26, said: “I saw the most beautiful lace popping out from the rack so I took a closer look and there was my dress, in my size.

“Straight away I knew it was the dress I always wanted - a Grace Kelly dress. It was perfect. My mum didn't cry when she saw me in the dress for the first wedding but she cried when she saw me in this.

“She was convinced my dad would have loved it.

“I'm so glad I found my dream dress and that it went to such a wonderful cause that’s close to our hearts.”

Ruth’s second big day consisted of a wedding blessing and celebration at Holy Trinity Church in Wentworth.

She said: “Our January wedding was everything I could have dreamed of and more. After my dad died we were really struggling for money.

“My friends and a lot of our family helped us so much organising fundraisers in honour of my dad for the hospice and for our wedding.”

Ruth, who works at Rotherham College and teaches singing, is a professional singer and actor. She made it through to the battle rounds of TV show The Voice in 2017 after being scouted for the programme while at university.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​