Mandurah's finest love story: How Noel plans to marry his bride

The Falcon local got through a battle with cancer just two years ago, but the disease has recently resurfaced and doctors have given him a grim outlook.

But Noel isn't your average bloke - and he won't go down easily.

While it would be more than understandable if he wished to confront this next chapter of his life from a hospital bed, he's decided to take a different approach.

In fact, the 73-year-old plans to get married this Sunday.

Noel and his bride-to-be, Teresa (79), first crossed paths on a regular day at a Falcon ATM in January, 2019.

All they wanted was to draw out some cash, but the pair found something much more valuable.

"I said to Noel, 'save some for your wife', and that's when he told me that his wife had passed away and I started tell him about my husband who had passed away," Teresa said.

"And just from that one little encounter you could tell there was a spark."

Exchanging phone numbers and a few laughs the pair went their separate ways, eventually catching up for their first date the next day.

From there blossomed what the two describe as a "magical" almost two years in their lives.

Filled with getaways to Margaret River and Albany, or simple strolls along their local beaches, the pair were inseparable from then on.

Originally a minister with the Catholic Church in England, Teresa's journey to Australia is somewhat miraculous in itself.

Having moved to Mandurah with her husband Bryan, daughter Tracy and the rest of their young family in 2006, she found it hard to settle.

Missing her parish and the life she once knew, Teresa and Bryan decided to return home.

But sadly, Bryan soon lost his own battle with cancer in 2015.

A short time later, while out shopping, Teresa suffered a stroke caused by a pair of aneurysms in her brain.

The health scare prompted her to once again relocate to Australia, looking to live the rest of her life surrounded by family.

"I missed them, dearly," she said.

"So I packed my bags and found myself back here in Mandurah."

Little did she know that family would soon grow to include Noel and his flock.

Eventually Teresa and Noel moved in together and agreed to marry, eyeing the end of September as the date.

But now, in the midst of yet another a cancer battle, Noel can't think of anything he'd rather do than put a ring on the finger of his love... even if he won't admit it at first.

"She's forced my arm a bit," he says with a grin.

"I offered for her to back out, because I didn't want to put her through this, but she's stuck by me.

"I love her."

The pair will marry surrounded by 40 of their closest friends and family at their Falcon home on Sunday.

The thought of that still blows Teresa away.

"I just look back on our time together and I'm a bit stunned, to be honest," she said.

"It's not something either of us wanted, it's not something either of us were looking for.

"But I'm so glad we found it."