You can find just about everything on TikTok. Whether you are looking for life hacks, how-to videos, or game streams, you can likely find them. In addition, some TikTok users utilize the app as a way to spread encouragement and awareness, as well as receive support. This is true for a woman who started posting her and her husband's journey on the social media app. 

Cancer Strikes

Madison met her husband, Zach, in high school. However, it wasn't until they reconnected on Facebook five years later that they started dating. They got engaged three years later in March 2019. Unfortunately, Zach was diagnosed with lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes, in 2020. He went into remission but relapsed the following year when cancer was found in his brain and spinal cord. 

He spent the next eight months fighting cancer with rounds of chemotherapy. He lost feeling from the chest down and was wheelchair-bound. He received a bone marrow transplant and went into remission for a second time. He was released from the hospital in July 2022.

While he went into remission for a second time, the experience was very trying for the couple. At some points in his battle, the couple was unsure if he would survive. Then, at one point, they found out the chemotherapy was no longer working. So even though their wedding was weeks away, they married within 48 hours, just in case he didn't have much time left.

Long Road to Recovery

After his discharge from the hospital in 2022, he weighed just 123 pounds. Being too weak to even walk up the stairs, his father-in-law carried him up to bed every night. Even when the feeling returned, he remained in his wheelchair for months following his hospital release, later moving to a walker as he regained his strength.

The couple has used social media to pay tribute to each other, spread awareness about bone cancers, and both show and receive support from followers. Zach posted a video with photos and videos from their wedding and shared how he wouldn't be here today if not for his wife. He tells her that even though she says he is the strongest person she knows, she is the strong one. 

Frequent Checkups

For several months after he went into remission, he went to the hospital every two weeks for an exam and lab work to ensure the cancer had not returned. Not only that, but they monitored his progress in regaining his strength, as well as seeing how his immune system was responding to the bone marrow transplant.

In addition to the frequent checkups for cancer, Zach has to receive shock therapy to help return feeling to his nerves and physical therapy to rebuild his strength. He is currently partially disabled due to weakness and lack of function in his legs.

Madison shares day-in-the-life videos, showing what a day of doctor's visits looks like for them. They have to drive four hours round trip for a full day of appointments, which she schedules on her days off from work. She also juggles a full-time job and all the chores and errands required to keep the house running.

Hope for the Future

Zach still has a long road to recovery, but the couple is enjoying life and thankful that he is currently cancer free. During one of his most challenging moments, Madison promised Zach he would see the beach again. In October, she was able to fulfill that promise. They look forward to all the traveling they can do in the future.

While trials in life can break couples apart, this journey has only strengthened them. They support each other in any way possible and have already overcome so much in their short marriage.