A newlywed was diagnosed with breast cancer just six weeks after she married her first ever Tinder date on April Fool’s Day.
Yasmin Kidwai Coop, 45, a personal assistant, and cameraman Jason Coop, 46, tied the knot on April 1, 2017 – three years to the day after they were matched on the dating app.
Yet just weeks after the couple’s luxury honeymoon, Ms Coop, from Kingston, south-west London, found a lump in her right breast while showering.
She said: ‘We just wanted to be like any other normal married couple, but instead I was facing a cancer battle as a newlywed. We hadn’t even really had a chance [to] start our married life’.
After enduring weeks of grueling radiotherapy and medication to control the cancer, Ms Coop has been given the all clear. She now wishes to raise awareness of the condition, which affects one in eight women in the UK at some point in their lives, to help other sufferers.
She said: ‘I want to talk openly about what’s happened to me so other people are checking themselves and keeping an eye on their own health.’
Yasmin Kidwai Coop was diagnosed with breast cancer just six weeks after she married her first ever Tinder date Jason Coop (both pictured) on April Fool’s Day 2017
Ms Coop endured weeks of grueling radiotherapy after receiving the diagnosis
She found a lump in her right breast while showering shortly after the couple’s honeymoon
‘We hadn’t had a chance to start married life’
A few weeks after the couple’s three-day honeymoon in a luxurious shepherd’s hut in Somerset, Ms Coop found a lump in her right breast.
She said: ‘It was pea-sized, but because I had just been on my period, I put it down to swelling and decided I’d go to the doctor if it didn’t go away.’
Two weeks later, the lump had not reduced, therefore Ms Coop visited her doctor who referred her for a mammogram at Kingston Hospital.
She said: ‘After the scan, the doctors said they weren’t worried about my right breast, but had found some unusual lumps on my left side, so sent me for a biopsy.
‘Just a week later I was called back in and told I had stage two breast cancer. We had only just got married six weeks earlier. We hadn’t even really had a chance [to] start our married life, only for me to be diagnosed with cancer.’
After being referred to The Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, Ms Coop had the tumour removed, as well as five weeks of radiotherapy, before taking medication that prevents cancerous cell growth.
She said: ‘Doctors told me they had got rid of all the cancer, which was a massive relief. Now I just want to get on with married life.
‘We just wanted to be like any other normal married couple, but instead I was facing a cancer battle as a newlywed.
‘I found the lump and had my husband at my side throughout. We are hoping the next six months of marriage will be a bit less eventful than the first six.’
Ms Coop is now keen to raise awareness of the condition, saying, ‘I want to talk openly about what’s happened to me so other people are checking themselves and keeping an eye on their own health.’
The couple got married on the three-year anniversary of their first Tinder date
Mr Coop unconventionally proposed to his later bride over the phone
Ms Coop feels they have not have the opportunity to enjoy being a newly-married couple
Her mother Margaret (pictured) gave her away after her her father died from cancer in 2008
‘I knew it wasn’t going to be a traditional wedding’
Ms Coop, who lost her father, Shaukat Kidwai, aged just 67, in 2008, after an 18-month battle with pancreatic cancer, tied the knot when her then-boyfriend proposed over the phone.
She said: ‘It was November 2016 and I knew our three year anniversary was coming up.
‘I was in the car one morning and called Jason. I just said, “Our anniversary is on a Saturday next year – so if we are going to get married, that might be a good date”.
‘I left it with Jason and he called up Lovekyn Chapel, the only remaining free-standing chantry chapel in England, which we loved.
‘He booked it for April 1. We knew not many people would want to wed on April Fool’s Day.’
Ms Coop, who joined Tinder in 2014, had her mother Margaret, 75, give her away in front of 60 guests.
She said: ‘I asked my mum, Margaret, to do the honours, but I knew very well it wasn’t going to be a traditional wedding.
‘We planned a day which was very collaborative, where our friends and family brought food, my good friend gave Jason a designer suit, as she works in the fashion business, and my dress was from a vintage shop.
‘I had flower girls, Jason’s niece and two goddaughters, and we had his nephew and my godson as our pageboys.’
Although Ms Coop thoroughly enjoyed the day, she felt the absence of her father.
She said: ‘All my dad ever wanted was to see me settle down and be looked after. I wish he had met Jason, so the day was bitter sweet, but also perfect.’
Ms Coop is supporting Cancer Research UK on February 4th’s World Cancer Day 2018. Wear a Cancer Research UK #UnityBand to help fund more research, treatments and cures.
Although Ms Coop thoroughly enjoyed her wedding, she felt the absence of her father
She wishes he could have met Mr Coop as he wanted to see his daughter settle down
Ms Coop has been given the all clear and hopes the couple’s future will be less eventful
She wishes to raise awareness of breast cancer to help other sufferers