Watch 26-year-old cancer patient propose to girlfriend on last day of treatment in SC
A cancer patient marking the end of his treatments went to ring a celebratory bell — but dropped down on one knee instead.
Caleb Lee, 26, proposed to his girlfriend as he looked toward the next chapter after chemotherapy, video from the Prisma Health Cancer Institute in Seneca, South Carolina, shows.
“I knew long before then that I was going to propose to her,” he told McClatchy News this week in a phone interview. “I just didn’t know when the right time would be. So obviously, as that countdown got closer and closer to the last day of treatment, I thought: What better way to cap off such a pivotal moment in my life.”
Video captured the moment Lee tugged on a string attached to a bell in the cancer center. But instead of sounding the bell, he reached into his pocket and turned around to pop the question.
His girlfriend, Ally Brown, said yes as the room erupted in cheers on Feb. 24.
“It all worked out perfectly until when I went to actually ring the bell,” Lee said. “It broke off immediately because I definitely went at it with all the strength I could muster up.”
The moments of celebration came after Lee said he faced multiple surgeries and six grueling months of chemotherapy. As the treatments made Lee weak, Brown picked up medications, cleaned and cooked for her now-fiancé.
“Just twisting the lid off of a bottle of water, I did not have the grip strength in my hand to do so ...” Lee said. “People laugh about the pickle jars and all that. I couldn’t open a bottle of Dasani.”
Lee first noticed something was wrong when his lymph node started to swell, eventually growing to about the size of a fist. He was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin Lymphoma last summer and joined a clinical trial, according to Lee and Prisma Health.
Lee received treatment in his native Oconee County and said the experience inspired him to give back to others. The 26-year-old — who splits his time between Greenville and the more rural town of Seneca — said he was fortunate to be in a good financial place but hopes people will consider the needs of some others who live in small towns.
Now, as Lee’s body shows no signs of cancer, he said his marriage proposal brought an unexpected sense of joy to the center where he received treatment.
“I just never put two and two together but you’ve got to think in a place like that, they don’t get a lot of happy endings,” he said.
After getting engaged in a place where people had worked to save his life, Lee and his fiancée now have a wedding and honeymoon in their future.
“If anybody has needed a vacation, it has been the both of us,” Lee said.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Watch 26-year-old cancer patient propose to girlfriend on last day of treatment in SC."
