A trip to a spa, a day at the seaside and being a bride for a day: The modest but heartbreaking final wishes of the 21-year-old dying from cancer

By CLAIRE BATES

Brave battle: Stephanie, pictured left before she was diagnosed with a rare cancer, and pictured right today

For most 21-year-old women, a trip to a spa or the theatre are a nice way to spend a weekend. But for Stephanie Knight these are her precious dying wishes.
The student, from Braughing, Hertfordshire, has been bravely battling cancer since she was 17 years old but learned on New Year's Day this year that her condition is now terminal.
So she decided to draw up a list of things she would like to do in her final months.

Stephanie, pictured in hospital, has refused to give up fighting her cancer and plans to set up a local charity to help other teenagers with cancer

Unusual requests include learning how to de-cork a bottle with a sword and to hold her own fake wedding.
'She has always wanted to get married and have lots of babies but has found it hard to have a partner while undergoing treatment, despite being a very pretty girl,' her sister said.

Stephanie (right) is pictured enjoying a night out with friends before her treatment. She lost her hair following chemotherapy

'She wants to at least have tried on dresses and had a hen do before she goes. It doesn't matter that it's not for real.
'We're planning to go all out for the hen do. The local landlady and our friends have been talking about naked butlers or maybe even a stripper - if Steph allows it.
'Steph was too young to come to mine and was having treatment when our older sister got married.'
But many of her requests are modest ones - she would like to finish her course and qualify as a nursery nurse and watch a sunset in a beautiful place.

Stephanie is determined to enjoy her life despite often being in agonising pain due to the cancer. A common side-effect of treatment is weight gain

She would love to go on holiday with her family and dogs, to the seaside with her nieces and nephews and to enjoy a 'normal' drunken night in the pub.
Perhaps more poignantly many of her wishes are for others. She wants to arrange for her sister to meet Gary Barlow or Robbie Williams and take her father to meet the Manchester United squad.
Another wish is simply 'to make someone's cancer experience slightly happier to get through.'
Her sister Rachel Cross, 31, said: 'Steph is such a selfless person. For her it's more about memories for us as well as fun experiences for herself.

Stephanie with a new relation: She was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 17

'She wants us to have good memories of her rather than all the hospital memories.'
Miss Knight was diagnosed with Ewings sarcoma in 2009 after doctors found a tumour the size of a tennis ball in the back of her pelvis.
By the time treatment started it had grown to cover the whole right side of her pelvis.
She responded well to 10 rounds of chemotherapy and three lots of radiotherapy in the first year and went into remission in October 2010. She returned to college to complete her second year of her child education course and started working in a local nursery.

Stephanie lost her leg to cancer in October last year (right). But after the surgery they found the cancer had returned to her stump

source: dailymail