Tammy Golson Fallon and Lauri Rawls made a dream Valentine’s Day wedding come true for Soupany Soraseun, who is courageously battling stage IV breast cancer, and her loving fiancé, Sam Chheung.
Soupany, 28, and Sam, both refugees—she from Laos and he from Cambodia—met when they were both living in Lynn, Massachusetts. They became close friends, but nothing more. When Soupany relocated to Texas, their friendship continued long distance. While there, Soupany was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Sam convinced her to return home to Massachusetts. He has been her devoted caregiver and advocate ever since.
During this trying time, the couple’s love for each other grew, and they shared their hope for a wedding with their treatment team at the Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center. Soupany’s social worker reached out to Lauri Rawls, director of community service at Endicott College, about the possibility of holding the ceremony in the campus chapel and to Wish Upon a Wedding, a nonprofit that provides weddings for couples facing terminal illness. Lauri quickly secured the necessary campus approvals, and the local chapter of Wish Upon a Wedding granted the couple’s request. The date of February 14 was set.
Tammy Golson Fallon, an event planner and Wish Upon a Wedding volunteer, arranged for donations from a photographer, a florist, a bakery and a clothing store and orchestrated every detail. The ceremony and the reception, catered by the Endicott College dining service, were a joyous celebration of the couple’s mutual love and commitment.
