Couple Ties the Knot in Hospital as Cancer Threatens Their Wedding Dreams

A cancer diagnosis and extended hospital stay would derail most wedding plans.

Not for Tracy Anderson and John Bartel.

Some of the scariest news imaginable didn't stop this couple from tying the knot. They just had to get creative on the location of their marriage ceremony. Very creative.

Here's the story: Days before Anderson and Bartel were scheduled to get married at a park near their home in Overland Park, with a backyard reception to follow, the groom experienced unbearable back pain. He was later rushed to Overland Park Regional Medical Center via ambulance when his condition worsened. Both he and the bride were expecting him to be treated for muscle spasms and released. They were wrong. Turns out, he had cancer.

And he had to undergo many tests before doctors were able to diagnose him with multiple myeloma, an aggressive bone cancer that was eating away at his spine.

No wonder his body ached so badly that he lost the ability to stand up straight.

"It's really horrible, but at least we can do something about it," Anderson says now. "Multiple myeloma is the most treatable of all the cancers he was tested for. Strange as it sounds, my sister asked me if we're praying for bone cancer. I told her, ‘Yes, sadly, that's what we're doing.'"

Bartel was soon transferred to KU Medical Center so he could begin radiation treatment and start his long road to recovery.

No one would have blamed them for calling off the wedding. But they wanted to proceed.

A wedding venue unlike any other

Why? Anderson had lots of reasons. For starters, they were in love. But they also had the perfect date (May 25, 2025) picked out and their family/friends were flying into town from as far away as Michigan. Furthermore, she paid a lot of money for a beautiful dress and Bartel had purchased engraved rings.

With all of that in mind, she suggested a location change instead of a cancellation.

They could exchange vows in the hospital.

"We could still get married here," Anderson said inside Bartel's hospital room. "They have a beautiful lobby. We can do a party anytime. But let's go ahead and have the ceremony right here, right now."

Bartel had doubts.

"I can't say that too many people have gotten married in a hospital," he said. "It's not on anyone's top-10 list."

Still, he was eager to call Anderson his wife, so they explored the idea.

When they ran the possibility by hospital staff, they didn't encounter resistance.

"The nurses were all really excited about it," Anderson said. "They told us, ‘We can certainly do that."

Talk about making the best out of a bad situation.

What followed was a strange but happy wedding ceremony in the atrium on the Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapies floor in Cambridge Tower A at KU Medical Center.

An ‘incredibly touching' ceremony

Anderson wore her dress and Bartel wore his suit.

She held a bouquet of flowers and he said his vows.

Around 40 people showed up to watch them say, "I do." When it was over, they celebrated by eating cookies in the hallway.

"It was chill," Anderson said. "It was incredibly touching that we had the most important people in our lives there. It wasn't all thrills, which is fine because I'm old and that stuff doesn't matter so much to me anymore. People were excited about it and we were all just so happy."

Bartel spent much of the ceremony on a mobile hospital recliner. But he smiled the whole time and pushed himself to stand for the important parts. He kissed the bride and posed for pictures on his feet as if he were perfectly healthy.

The PR department at KU Med took video of the entire ceremony and publicized it afterward. Both Anderson and Bartel were grinning ear to ear as they talked about their unusual wedding. Both of them thanked KU Med for helping to make it happen.

"It was," Anderson said, "exactly what a wedding is supposed to be."

Bartel was exhausted by the end of the ceremony and spent the rest of the day in his hospital room. But it was worth it.

"Any time I can end the day being married to Tracy," he said, "it's going to be a good day."

Remembering life as Willie the Wildcat

No cancer diagnosis is easy to accept, but this one was particularly hard on Bartel because there were no signs that he was unhealthy.

Bartel is usually a very active person. In fact, he met Anderson at a gym.

She was a personal trainer and he joined her class for a fitness challenge. They hit it off and had their first date in 2019. Everything clicked from there and they eventually got engaged. They both worked as teachers and they turned out to be a great match for each other.

Before they met, Bartel pursued all kinds of hobbies.

He liked playing lacrosse and loved leading cheers at sporting events. So much so, that he served as Willie the Wildcat for three years while he was a student at Kansas State.

He had a lot of fun with that job.

Bartel says he was the first K-State mascot to lead a K-S-U Wildcats cheer at a football game. He also rode a four-wheeler around the stadium and came up with the trademark signature that Willie the Wildcat still hands out to children today.

"Those are little claims to fame for me," he said. "Those are things that I developed when I was there. So it's cool that we started a couple traditions that they thought were worthy of carrying on."

His first game as a varsity mascot coincided with Bill Snyder's first season as a head coach. The K-State football team was one of the worst in history before 1989, but Snyder built the Wildcats into consistent winners. And Bartel was there to help fuel that upward trajectory from the stands.

His antics included climbing on top of the press box and waving signs at opposing players.

K-State fans can relive his time as Willie the Wildcat by watching a YouTube video that highlights some of his games.

"I got to be Bill Snyder's first Willie the Wildcat, which looking back on it was an honor to be part of that," Bartel said. "He's famous for having all those handwritten notes. I got a couple of handwritten notes from Bill Snyder that first year, just thanking me for supporting the team and stuff like that. That was kind of a cool thing."

Anderson could tell right away that her husband had a background as a mascot.

When she first informed him that she attended school at Central Michigan, he fired back by saying, "of course, the Chippewas!"

"Who else would know that?" Anderson said with a laugh. "He knows all the mascots and all the teams."

That personality led him to become a popular school principal, teacher and trivia host later in life.

The road to recovery

Bartel isn't able to do any of his usual hobbies at the moment.

He has been in the hospital for about five weeks now, and most of his days are spent in bed and undergoing treatment. As you may expect, he doesn't have much energy and he is constantly dealing with pain. A surgery is scheduled to help with that on July 21.

The hope is that he will be able to manage his life with cancer in the near future.

For now, when he is awake and feeling good he likes to pass the time by checking social media, speaking with his wife and welcoming visitors into his room.

Outside support is helping him along the way.

"It has been amazing and extremely helpful," Anderson said. "He has touched so many people's lives and it shows right now. All the comments and calls we get from people wanting to help has just been really touching for the both of us."

The newlyweds are trying their best to keep a positive outlook.

Things have been looking up ever since they decided to get married in a hospital.