When a life-threatening illness robbed trainee nurse Stacey Percival of her sight and her dreams, she told her boyfriend Kierran Butcher to walk away.
But he refused – and now the couple have walked up the aisle as husband and wife, accompanied by the guide dog who gave Stacey back her future.
The newlywed, 29, said: “To think that eight years ago I wanted my life to be over, and I had to completely reconstruct my life around my sight loss… it’s hard to put into words how happy I am to finally be Mrs Butcher.”
Stacey was just 21 and training to be a nurse when she fell ill on a holiday to Spain with her family and long-term boyfriend Kierran.
She suffered severe vomiting and diarrhoea, could not walk and her kidneys began to fail.
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Within minutes of becoming unwell, she also lost her eyesight.
Mum Alison begged her to go to hospital – but Stacey was in so much pain she told her she wanted to stay where she was and “slip away”.
When she eventually got to A&E, Stacey had complete kidney failure and was put straight on filtration dialysis.
As all her organs began shutting down and she needed surgery to fix a hole in her bowel, doctors put her into an induced coma for a week.
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Her memories of that terrifying experience are patchy, other than knowing she felt “very scared and unwell”.
Stacey’s worried family and boyfriend, who she had met in a nightclub three years earlier, were warned she was unlikely to survive surgery.
But she came through against the odds and was eventually flown back to the UK – to spend a further three months in hospital fighting sepsis and blood clots.
Stacey said: “Nobody knew the cause. The UK doctors said the clots in my optic nerves and kidneys might be virus-related, an auto-immune disease.
“They didn’t know if I’d had it from birth or picked it up more recently.”
Left with no central vision and only limited peripheral vision, Stacey had to give up nursing and stop driving after having just passed her test and gained her independence. She said: “It felt like my whole world, all my dreams, were gone
“I told Kierran I understood if he had to move on, to find happiness with someone else. He said, ‘No way, we’re in this together’.”
Stacey needed dialysis several times a week to keep her alive as she tried to rebuild her life, both physically and mentally.
Her sight loss was a barrier to getting out and about, so she decided she wanted a guide dog to regain the independence she was used to.
In April 2014, just eight months after she had fallen ill, she was matched with a lab-cross retriever called Toffee – who was described as a “cheeky” guide dog suitable for a younger person.
Toffee had 12 months of ‘walking training’ followed by six months of advanced training before being partnered with Stacey at 18 months old.
The new pair then trained together for three weeks before they were left to forge their own path and transform Tracey’s life
She said: “He got me out of my depressed state and gave me a reason to live again. With Toffee by my side, I can do anything I want.
“I qualified with Toffee the same day my friends became qualified nurses.”
By then Stacey had also had a kidney transplant, donated by her aunt Suzanne.
And although she has ongoing health issues and needs regular hospital checks, she has been able to find work as a customer services adviser and has bought her first home with Kierran, 30, a sports coordinator at Warwick University.
Stacey said: “I applied for over 200 jobs before I finally got one. I couldn’t have handled it without my two boys supporting me – Toffee and Kierran.
“Toffee’s the most lovable, dopey, clever dog imaginable. He’ll sense when I’m down and come and sit with me.
“He helps me navigate the world and has given me my life back.”
Having stayed at her side throughout, Kierran proposed on a beach in the Algarve in Portugal in August 2018.
After delays due to Covid, the couple, of Coventry, tied the knot last month in the gardens of Warwick House in Southam, in front of 100 family and friends. Stacey said: “We’d had the wedding postponed three times and I seriously thought this day might never come.
“Toffee stole the show, carrying the rings down the aisle in a box attached to the same blue bow tie as Kierran and the other ushers were wearing.
“My dad Jim walked me down the aisle towards my special boys, Kierran and Toffee looking back at me beaming.
“There wasn’t a dry eye. Toffee was by my side all day, even watching longingly as Kierran and I had our first dance. Of course I told everyone how much we owed to Toffee, how none of this would be possible without him.
“Kierran and Toffee love each other too, they’re always playing together.”
Proud groom Kierran said Stacey was “the strongest, most inspirational person”, adding: “With Toffee by her side, there’s nothing she can’t do. She’s constantly smiling, such a positive, happy person, and I feel blessed to have her by my side for the rest of my life.”
Stacey and Toffee are now featuring in a new Sponsor a Puppy TV advert for the charity Guide Dogs.
In it, she says: “It’s not just a guide dog to help people from A to B, it’s someone’s lifeline. Please help someone like me live life to the full.”
■ guidedogs.org.uk/how-you-can-help/donating/sponsor-a-puppy