But for Peter (42), and Maureen McAlindon (40) from Belfast, that's exactly what happened. Now married for 12 years, they met at their friends' engagement party and, after a whirlwind romance were married within nine months - before their friends.

Soon, however, the unimaginable happened. In their 30s, and with an 18-month-old son, Rory, Peter was diagnosed with cancer and Maureen devotedly cared for him through months of debilitating treatment.

That was more than five years ago - now the couple are delighted to have a little girl to add to their family and are looking forward to Peter's expedition to Mount Everest through which he will raise money for Ulster cancer patients.

Peter, co-director of Direct Wine Shipments, was contacted by the Ulster Cancer Foundation (UCF) in December with the proposal that they wanted a cancer survivor to take part in the climb.

Also on the trip will be Lynne and Noel Hanna from Dromara, Co Down, who are aiming to be the first married couple to reach Everest's summit. Peter will join them on the trek's first leg. He knows that his efforts will be well worth it - the projected £150,000 raised from the Personal Everest Project run by UCF will go towards developing a tailored fitness programme for cancer patients and will fund a full-time complementary therapy service.

Peter is well placed to know how beneficial these services will be, being a survivor of cancer himself.

In September 2001 he noticed a lump in his groin and went to the doctor.

"I wasn't sure what it was," he says. "After X-rays and tests I finally saw a radiologist who did a needle biopsy and on December 3 I got a diagnosis. It was my brother's birthday and I'd taken the day off work to do Christmas shopping.

"The doctor told me I had lymphoma - I didn't know what exactly that was, but when he explained that I'd need chemotherapy I realised it was cancer. I just thought that was it. I had a 14-year-old daughter and our son was just 18 months at the time. I was 36 - I felt robbed, cheated."

But when the couple learned more about the illness their initial fear turned to determination.

"We were of course devastated initially, but when we did research on the internet and spoke to doctor relatives, we realised that we were lucky because lymphoma is a type of cancer with often good outcomes," Maureen says.

Peter had five months of chemotherapy, a debilitating course deemed necessary because his cancer was aggressive. He also received an antigen treatment to increase his chances of getting into remission and staying there.

"The chemotherapy took so much out of me," he says. "So much so that the day I was told I was in remission, in June 2002, I just felt numb. It's an area that isn't really talked about, how people struggle to get back to their previous life after it changes so much. But exercise, including swimming and hill walking, helped me a lot to get over the fatigue. "

For Maureen, as the principle carer, it was a sometimes lonely time. " We just took each day as it came," she says. "One day when I left Peter off at a treatment session - he sometimes wanted to be on his own at the hospital - I felt particularly alone as anyone I tried to ring was unavailable. I phoned the UCF helpline and they put me in touch with a support group - we went along and met a lot of lovely people who were going through the same things.

"I also visited a counsellor myself, to offload to someone who wasn't directly involved with what was happening."

The family has certainly come a long way since Peter went into remission.

"A big thing for us was whether or not we'd be able to have more children, and to our delight we were," Maureen says. "When our little girl, Ruby, was born it was as if we'd come full circle."

Now Maureen is supporting her intrepid husband in another way - for his trip to the world's highest mountain.

"It's the chance of a lifetime for Peter - he's always loved the outdoors and travelling," she says. "It will be hard because he's a very hands-on dad and we've never been apart more than five days. But I'm very positive about it - it's an amazing opportunity to raise funds for a great cause."