A BRIDE-to-be with leukemia who had to postpone her special day was left even more distressed after a shop failure in Cirencester meant she no longer had a wedding dress.

Ruth Beaman, 41, from Cirencester and living in Yorkshire, was due to marry Pete Hodgson, 49, on May 28.

Her wedding however was postponed to May next year after she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in February.

But having leukemia and a postponed wedding was not the end of her worries as plans for her wedding dress fell through after The Bridal Studio dress shop in Cirencester closed down in June.

The shop in Woolmarket, which sells and alters evening dresses for weddings, proms and other special occasions, reportedly closed due to the ill health of its owner, Kim Gentil.

It is understood that the shop and its owner had been undergoing difficulties since April.

Ruth booked her £1200 dress in summer last year and paid a £500 deposit. She had two attempted fittings where according to her, the dress had not been sorted or made.

Ruth said: “The shop owner was very ditzy and didn’t seem to be very organised. She was 35 to 45 minutes late to one of the last fittings.”.

The 41-year-old was due to have her third fitting in February when she was diagnosed with the terminal illness.

Ruth postponed her fitting, but the Cirencester shop closed in June, during her six-month treatment.

She was made to understand that if her dress had not been completed, she was due a refund of her deposit.

But when Ruth’s mother and sister went down to The Bridal Studio to retrieve a refund, they were told that a dress had been completed and that a payment of the full amount was expected.

Ruth said: “They were trying to say that the dress was complete. They wanted us to pay the rest of the money. They had put something together that wasn’t a dress, that was not completed and that I had never tried on.

“We knew it couldn’t fit me. It wasn’t the £1200 wedding dress that they had promised us.”

Ruth was unable to claim her £500 deposit back. She said: “I feel we’ve been treated poorly and unprofessionally. I appreciate that when businesses go under they go under.

“But there is no compassion for what we are going through.

“It’s a stress I don’t need when you are going through leukemia and treatment. There was no negotiation over the set day to sort out payments or collection of orders in June.

“We went to a small family business because we like supporting local shops and there’s been none of that back.”

Speaking of what her wedding plans now, she said: “I’m not really sure. I’m going to have to buy a cheap wedding dress after my transplant. £500 is a lot to lose when we need to get another dress.”

Ruth will be undergoing a bone marrow transplant from Monday, August 29. But doctors have said that there is a high risk of the illness hitting again, and have put her life expectancy at five years.