A LOVED-UP couple, who celebrated their first wedding anniversary earlier this year, have bravely spoken of the heartbreaking moment they discovered their world was about to come crashing down around them.

Nicola Byrnes, who fell in love with her now-husband Patrick around 10 years ago after first setting eyes on each other in a bar in Manchester, faces a gruelling battle to beat leukaemia.

The 45-year-old, who grew up in Penketh but now lives in Great Sankey with her devoted husband, was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of leukaemia called acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in June.

Patrick, aged 42, recalled how the diagnosis arrived just weeks after the couple had returned home from Antigua to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.

He said: "That's the point where our world was turned upside down.

"To be perfectly honest you don't know what is going on at that point in time.

"You don't understand what it means and you are naturally worried because you hear the word leukemia and you think the worst."

Nicola, who works for Vodafone, was transferred to The Christie in Manchester where she has been undergoing an aggressive regime of daily chemotherapy.

She said: "It's very intense and there are lots of things that you have to tolerate pain-wise.

"It builds up over time and you kind of reach a point where you think that is your limit – I don't want any more needles or any more pain – but you have to go beyond that and just get on with it.

"You try to stay positive as the outcome is not a given."

But laughter is never far away and Patrick has stepped up to the job as Nicola's personal entertainer with his welcomed humour always managing to put a smile on his wife's face.

"I'm the entertainment department. I try to cheer her up every day or I remind her that she's got a toyboy," he joked.

But Nicola ultimately needs to have a stemcell or bone marrow transplant to give her a second chance at life – a sickening worry that is never far from their minds.

Her husband has called on the public to sign up to the register.

Patrick added: "The more people who sign up, it will increase Nicola's chances of finding a match. It's as simple as that. It's a numbers game.

"But it's not only Nicola you can potentially help but anyone else who is in this position."

Every 20 minutes, someone in the UK is told they have a blood cancer. That’s 70 people a day, 25,000 people a year.

Around 2,000 people at any given time waiting for a match for a transplant.

For more information visit click here for the Anthony Nolan project or click here for Delete Blood Cancer.