Florida couple marries 20 years after meeting as kids at their doctor's office


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Mark Daughtery and Samantha Settle think it's important to "live life to the fullest," and plan on doing so together.
Daughtery, 26, and Settle, 23, first met when they were young children, both diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He was 5 and she was 2, and because they both had the same doctor, they often ran into each other at his office. They understood what it was like to fight leukemia and go through chemo at such a young age, and they became best friends. "It was always natural to laugh and enjoy time with her," Daughtery told ABC News.
Both attended Florida State University, and that's when they began dating. After becoming engaged, they knew one person who had to get an invitation to their May wedding: Dr. Fouad Hajjar, their doctor at Orlando's AdventHealth for Children. Daughtery and Settle are leukemia-free, and "to see them now as adults, a married couple, is just so humbling and so awesome," Hajjar said. "It's not just saving lives, but also saving a lifetime of memories." Catherine Garcia
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A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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