Bride-to-be wheeled down aisle after SNAPPING her leg squat dancing on a podium at her hen do
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This is the moment a bride-to-be SNAPS her leg whilst squat dancing on a podium at her hen do just three weeks before the big day – meaning she had to be wheeled down the aisle.
Laura Pascoe, 26, had been partying with pals in Swansea nightclub Popworld when, while attempting a squat move with one leg up on a podium bar, she broke two bones in her shin.
Raced to the Welsh city’s Morriston Hospital, the office worker underwent 45-minute emergency surgery just to have plates and screws inserted in her left leg.
Doctors then broke the news that she’d need to wear a cast for the next five weeks, dashing everything she’d planned for her wedding day the following month to husband Thomas Pascoe, 27, who works in scaffolding.
(Image: PA Real Life)
Laura, of Llangeinor, Bridgend, Wales said: “I said to the doctor, ‘I’m getting married in three weeks, will I be alright?’ But they told me no.
“Once everything sank in, I was absolutely devastated. You have such a vision for your wedding day, it’s something you plan and dream of for so long, and mine was ruined.
“I even considered postponing it, but Thomas and I figured it was best to go ahead, as at the end of the day, we’d still be getting married, which was all we wanted.”
Adorably, the newlyweds, who now have two children together – Grace, seven and Liam, five – have known each other since primary school.
(Image: PA Real Life/Tony Long Photography)
But, they didn’t properly connect until years later, when Thomas joined the same rugby team as Laura’s brother Gavin.
Thomas had seen Laura, then 17, around and fancied her, so wrote his number on a sticky note for Gavin to pass on.
She laughed: “I thought, ‘bless him, he’s really gone out his way.’ Back then, though, people only had contract phones if their parents were minted, so we could only text when we had credit.
“Sometimes, I’d send him reverse charge text messages, so if he wanted to hear from me, he’d have to pay.”
Soon becoming an item, things moved fast for the young couple, with Laura falling pregnant with Grace just two months into the relationship.
Little Liam was born two years after that, and, on Christmas Day 2015, Thomas popped the question.
(Image: PA Real Life)
Laura recalled: “On Christmas Eve, he’d disappeared for hours. The house was manic with getting everything ready, and I remember being really cross.
“I rang him over and over but he didn’t answer. I later found out he’d been asking my dad Shaun for permission to marry me.
“The next day, I was sat in my new festive pyjamas when he came in with the kids. Liam said, ‘Mammy, will you marry Daddy?’
“It was a little awkward as earlier that day, I’d been telling him how cheesy I thought Christmas proposals were, so I played Justin Bieber’s Sorry in case I’d hurt his feelings, and accepted.”
(Image: PA Real Life)
As thoughts turned to wedding plans, Laura decided that she didn’t want a raucous hen party, opting instead for a low-key night in with wine, a takeaway, and a handful of close friends.
However, when the day rolled round in May 2017, her pals surprised her with a night out, complete with a stripper and limo ride.
As Facebook was flooded with pictures of the celebrations the next morning, Laura began to fret in case some of her other friends saw and got upset that they hadn’t been invited.
So, to make sure everyone was involved in the festivities, she organised another hen party – a night out in Swansea – for July.
She said: “I didn’t want anything special, just a minibus into the city, a party then home with a kebab in tow.”
(Image: PA Real Life)
With drinks flowing, Laura and her friends were having a brilliant night – until the bride-to-be drunkenly attempted a squat dance move, and felt an alarming snap in her leg.
She continued: “I thought it’d be funny to get up on the podium and bust some moves, but as I tried to squat, I heard this snapping sound and collapsed onto the floor.
“At first my friends thought I’d just fallen over drunk and were telling me to stop being silly and get up, but they soon realised I was in pain.
“I just remember drifting in and out of consciousness while the girls tried to keep me awake. My friend Amy is a nurse so she knew what to do, putting some ice on my leg to stop the swelling.”
(Image: PA Real Life/Tony Long Photography)
Taken out the nightclub in a wheelchair, Laura then went to Morriston Hospital.
Upon waking the next morning, she didn’t initially remember what had happened.
“I’d still been so drunk in the ambulance that I was chattering away, asking everyone their names. Then when I woke up, I didn’t have a dicky bird,” she went on.
“I asked a nurse what’d happened, and he explained I’d broken both the bones in my shin, and chipped my ankle.
“At that point, Thomas came in. He took one look at me and went, ‘Only you, Laura.’”
Two days later, after her operation, Laura was allowed home with her leg in a cast.
Unable to put any weight on her broken limb as it risked further damage, she had to rely on a wheelchair to get around.
With her August 2017 wedding just weeks away, she had to face the fact that she wouldn’t be walking down the aisle, or enjoying her first dance – which she and Thomas had decided would be a novelty routine to pop hit Gangnam Style – as planned.
But, determined to marry the man she loved, she went ahead regardless, tying the knot at Calfaria Baptist Church in Llangeinor.
She told: “I tried to put a little weight on my leg at the rehearsal, but it was too painful, and my dress would have got in the way of crutches.
“Instead, I was wheeled down the aisle and, for the first dance, I sort of stood on one leg and swayed about to Ed Sheeran like an awkward 10-year-old dancing.
“It drove me nuts not being able to get up and dance the night away as I’d planned, but it was still a great day, and Thomas was brilliant.”
Able to have her cast removed six days after the wedding, Laura is now back on her feet – though the recent cold weather has caused some pain flare-ups and swelling.
She also said she feels very nervous when she’s out and about, in case she damages it again.
Though the couple are yet to go on their honeymoon, they’re settling into married life well.
Laura said: “I still can’t believe all this happened. I’d absolutely love to renew my vows one day, and do it all again as planned.
“I never really thought I’d get married. It wasn’t something I was hugely bothered about but – and this sounds cheesy – all that changed with Thomas.”