A devoted fiancé has revealed his terminally ill partner has suffered three strokes in hospital as he desperately prays for a miracle after doctors warned him to prepare for the worst.
John Klapwijk, 61, said his world had been turned upside down after his fiancée Yasmin Ibrahim was diagnosed with cervical cancer last summer.
The wellbeing coach, 56, initially underwent chemotherapy and targeted radiotherapy, with doctors managing to get rid of the original tumour.
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But the couple were dealt another devastating blow when they discovered in August that the cancer had spread to three lymph nodes.
Now, after suffering a series of strokes believed to have been caused by the cancer, Yasmin remains in hospital in critical condition.
“The doctors have said I need to prepare myself for the worst,” John, a personal trainer, from Richmond, London, told Need To Know.
“I’m talking to God every minute of the day.
“I’m praying out loud at night, I can’t rest.
“I’m beyond terrified.
“She has moments where she can communicate.
“Yesterday, we were having a laugh and she was being quite cheeky so he’s on a rollercoaster of consciousness.
“If anything goes wrong with her heart, the damage of trying to revive her wouldn’t do her any good.
“We need to sign a DNR so she’s comfortable.
“She doesn’t deserve this.
“When we got the results she burst into tears and said ‘why is this happening when I’ve finally met someone and it’s being taken away now?’.
“The next few days are crucial, if she’s responsive enough then something good could happen.”
John says Yasmin has also suffered a bleed on the brain and is too weak to have treatment to tackle the cancer.
He said: “She isn’t strong enough to have treatment for the cancer but it’s the cancer causing the strokes.
“We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.”
The couple, who have been together for four years, were supposed to marry on 9 October but were forced to postpone their wedding until next year.
John is now desperately hoping Yasmin will recover enough to undergo further treatment and has launched a fundraiser to help pay for therapies and provide her with somewhere peaceful to recuperate.
He said: “We spent a lot of money on holistic treatment so we’ve built up a debt issue that we’re trying to deal with.
“The main purpose of the fundraiser is to fund treatment and therapies once we get her through this.
“We live in a flat and the bathroom is upstairs.
“She’s always wanted a garden.
“I want to take her somewhere quiet and peaceful to live where she can recuperate, make sure she has everything she needs with no money worries so she can just recover.
“I want her to enjoy life.
“She has to have something to live for.
“I want to make sure she has everything she wants.”
The pair met on a dating app for people interested in health and fitness and John described their first date as “magical”.
They moved in together just four months later and John proposed in February 2023.
He said: “Yasmin is stunning.
“There was something so magical about how she looked.
“She has the most beautiful green and brown eyes and the most incredible smile.
“I just thought ‘wow, this is a beautiful woman’.
“The first date was surreal.
“It was so romance, storybook and we knew it was right.
“Everything fell into place.
“Yasmin is a very influential, powerful, committed, loving, incredible, intelligent force.
“She’s like nothing I’ve ever seen or met.
“She’s one in a trillion.
“Her love for me is the biggest thing, I’ve never experienced anything like it and I never will again.”
But in August 2025, the couple became concerned when Yasmin began experiencing episodes of bleeding after intimacy.
She booked an appointment with her GP, where a check under local anaesthetic revealed a malignant tumour on her cervix.
Yasmin was diagnosed just weeks after first seeking medical help.
John said: “When we heard that, it was a kick to the back of the knees moment but we said we’d fight it.
“She had chemotherapy and targeted radiotherapy.
“After two sessions of chemo, she reacted badly so we stopped that.
“We managed to get rid of the tumour with radiotherapy but by that point the cancer had spread to three lymph nodes.
“I can’t put into words how we felt when we found out.
“When we saw the scans, I was terrified.
“The spread was so aggressive.
“She had pains and discomfort, she had to get into child’s pose a lot to stretch out her hips.
“She’s such an overwhelmingly strong person so stubbornly, she doesn’t always give a true reflection of the pain that she’s in.
“Two weeks ago, she started losing control and grip strength in her left hand and she dropped her phone a few times.
“That night, we went to bed and she woke up four or five times.
“I kept checking her temperature and it was 38.2.
“In the morning, her temperature had gone down and she was in less discomfort but her mobility on the left began to decrease.
“On 30 October, I called hospital and they said she may be having a stroke so I called an ambulance.
“She’s been in hospital since.”
John said she has since suffered two further strokes and was unresponsive on Monday (9 November).
The possibility of losing his fiancée has left John struggling to sleep as he clings to hope that she will somehow recover.
He added: “She’s been through so much in her life and we’ve just found each other.
“Miracles happen every day and I have to keep faith and hoping something happens that brings her around.
“We’ve got to face the reality of what could happen but I have to keep praying that she somehow comes around from this.”
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