A CITY will come to a standstill next week to pay its last respects to an inspirational hospice bride who died days after fulfilling her wish to marry her fiancé of 30 years.

Hundreds of mourners are expected to gather in Durham City’s Market Place, at 1.30pm on Monday (October 27) to meet the hearse of June Carter, at 1pm on Monday.

The cortege will then makes its way up Saddler Street to Durham Cathedral for the funeral service at 2pm.

The 60-year-old of Sacriston died on Thursday, October 9, morning surrounded by her family at St Cuthbert’s Hospice, Durham, where she was an in-patient.

Mrs Carter married long-term partner Jim Carter, 75, at moving ceremony at the hospice the previous Friday.

The, couple, together for 32 years and engaged for 30 years, decided to wed when she was told of her worsening condition.

Mr Carter, who worked at Durham Cathedral as a porter for 20 years, said: “Having a funeral in the cathedral is what June wanted.

“She asked me when she first went into the hospice some time ago if it could be arranged and I said I would find out.

“June once remarked that she would be able to fill the cathedral - and looks like it might come true.”

Paying tribute Mr Carter said: “June was a wonderful woman. She looked after me and we had a daughter, Claire, together and we had some good times and some bad times together.”

The couple’s wedding was arranged by hospice staff within a week. Dressed in a wedding gown chosen by daughter Claire, she was given away by her father Albert Hockaday.

Speaking afterwards, a delighted Mrs Carter said: “Jim proposed to me a few times, but I’ve always said no. You are working, you are busy, you don’t get round to it.

“I am at the end of my life now and I thought it’s the last thing me and Jim are ever going to do.

"I wanted to marry him – to show world that I do love him and he loves me. It’s the very last thing we wanted to do.”

Mr Carter said today (Thursday, October 23): “Getting married was very special to both of us. We obviously thought it might last a bit longer, but obviously it didn’t.

“We were prepared for it. We knew she was getting worse.”

Mr Carter said all were welcome to the funeral service. It will be followed by cremation at Durham Crematorium. Family and friends will then gather at Sacriston Workingmens’ Club.