Couple who fought leukemia together since they were kids gets married

It’s a storybook ending for a couple whose journey started as every parents’ nightmare.

In May of this year, Mark Daugherty, 26, and Samantha Settle, 23, were married after meeting more than 20 years ago as toddlers at a hospital clinic — both battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

“It felt like a dream,” Settle says of her wedding day.

The pair met when Daugherty was just 5 and Settle was 2, both seeing the same doctor for chemotherapy during their battles with leukemia. During that time, they’d visit with each other during treatments, bonding in a way they couldn’t with kids who weren’t living with the often debilitating disease.

“Whenever we struggle with something, we say, ‘My chemo brain has the best of me today,’ ” Settle tells Good Morning America. “Nobody can relate to that unless you experience late effects from chemo, especially when you’re going through chemo as a toddler.”

Though they’ve been in remission for over 15 years, Settle says the illness and treatment had a long lasting impact on her brain, particularly her ability to read. Daugherty, she says, was always there to help her with reading.

He really taught me [to not] give up,” says Settle. “He would sit me down and say ‘You can’t give up, you can’t give up. Reading is hard, but keep on plowing through,’ and I think that just stuck with me for everything.”

Even after they became leukemia-free, the two remained easy friends, meeting-up during follow-up doctor visits, summer camp and events around their hometown. “It was always natural to laugh and enjoy time with her,” Daugherty says.

Only after they began attending Florida State University did their relationship turn romantic.

“From when we started dating, it was surreal that he went from being a childhood best friend to my boyfriend,” Settle said. “Then it was even more surreal that he went from a boyfriend to a fiance.”

In 2017, the couple were visiting the picturesque Biltmore Estate in North Carolina when Daugherty proposed to Settle, surrounded by their family. But their wedding was a community affair, with friends and family, and even the doctor who treated them both.

“To see them now as adults [and as a] married couple is just so humbling and so awesome,” says Dr. Fouad Hajjar, director of pediatric hematology and oncology at AdventHealth for Children — who continues to see both patients today for regular checkups.

Even as an adult in remission, having follow-up tests can be nerve-wracking — which is why it’s so important they have each other.

“[Sam] is someone that I can talk to when I run through all of the tests of a result to make sure I’m still good,” Daugherty says. “She understands that my health, and her health mentally, physically and spiritually is the most important thing.”

Of course, most of the time they’re not worrying about their shared illness. Instead, they enjoy going on “adventures” together, such as visiting Walt Disney World as much as possible — where they also celebrated their honeymoon.

“When we’re at Disney, she has ears and always excited about seeing Winnie the Pooh,” Daugherty says of Settle. “She never lets her inner child go away.”

Daugherty says that his dad taught him that “memories are more lasting than material items,” especially for their once fragile existence.

“Going through something like this, life is very short and can change rapidly,” he said. “So why not live life to the fullest?”