10-year-old US girl marries her beau days before dying of leukemia

Last year, Emma Edwards was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, an illness her parents believed she could overcome.

In a heartbreaking incident, a terminally ill 10-year-old fulfilled her final wish by marrying her childhood sweetheart shortly before succumbing to leukemia on July 11. Emma and her boyfriend Daniel Marshall Christopher Williams Junior tied the knot at a big celebration on June 29 - just 12 days before the girl succumbed to the disease, a report in The New York Post states. Last year, Emma Edwards was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a diagnosis that her parents Alina, 39, and Aaron, 41, received with hope, believing that she could overcome the illness. However, the family received devastating news in June when they were informed that Emma's aggressive form of cancer, which targets white blood cells, was untreatable.

Emma Edwards and Daniel Marshall Christopher Williams Junior's picture taken during the wedding ceremony.(Facebook/Eric Messer Photography)

“We were going for another kind of treatment, and they told us that she probably had days to a week, not weeks (to live)”, The New York Post quoted Alina.

Alina later revealed that Emma's cherished aspiration was to marry her boyfriend of two years, ten-year-old DJ. The young couple even made a playful attempt to hold a "wedding" during their lunch break at school when they were eight years old. After their parents found out about it, they decided to get Emma and DJ married. Loved ones and close friends united to fulfill Emma's dream, organising a special ceremony for the young couple. The event drew an attendance of 100 guests.

“It had to happen super fast. We threw it together in less than two days; everything ended up being donated… Her dad gets to say he gave her away. A friend of ours officiated, a friend read a verse from the Bible, and her best friend was maid of honor," Alina said.

In a ceremony held in her grandmother's garden, Emma was escorted down the aisle by her father, Aaron. Their third-grade teacher delivered a speech, recounting the touching story of how the young pair's relationship blossomed.