Honouring Victoria: How Angus is Standing Up to Cancer after losing his wife

Victoria Hall and Angus Hulme had both been unlucky in love. 

They had almost given up on finding ‘the one’. Then one day, while walking through Hyde Park in London, their eyes met and they recognised each other from a brief ‘swipe right’ moment on a dating site. 

Too shy to speak, they passed by in a ‘Sliding Doors’ moment. 

But later, Victoria found the courage to contact Angus. They had their first date in Hyde Park, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Telling Victoria’s story

The couple, from London, married in a beautiful ceremony, surrounded by family and friends. But four weeks later, Victoria died, aged just 33. 

In between their meeting in Hyde Park and their wedding in Chelsea, were months of love, pain and heartbreak that neither of them could have foreseen. 

This week (Nov 1), Angus re-tells their story in a moving film for Channel 4, as part of Stand Up to Cancer, the joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and C4. 

In an impassioned plea, he asks people to help fulfil one of her dying wishes – and Stand Up to Cancer. 

Stand Up to Cancer is the joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4. It takes developments from the lab and accelerates them into new tests and treatments to help save more lives. 

A ‘little big day’ 

Victoria and Angus met in late 2020, just as the world was coming out of lockdown. 

As they moved into 2021, life felt great – Victoria had been promoted at work and she’d fallen in love with Angus. But in August came the shocking revelation that she had bowel cancer. 

Two weeks of abdominal cramps, a little weight loss and fatigue were the only – initially unrecognised – signs there was anything wrong. 

Surgeons removed the tumour and Victoria started six months of chemotherapy. But in March, scans revealed the cancer had spread and was incurable. 

“All my plans for having children, starting an awesome new job, all the things we strive for when we assume a long life, were scuppered,” Victoria. 

However, out of that trauma came the realisation of just how strong Victoria and Angus’s relationship was. 

“I felt that when I leave this world, I could go knowing I had been fulfilled and that my legacy would be the partnership we created. It was good to know I was worth hanging around for,” she said. 

Knowing her time was limited, Victoria organised a wedding in six weeks from her hospital bed. She called it their magical ‘little big day’. 

Standing up to cancer

Angus, who now uses the surname Hall-Hulme, said the last year, since losing Victoria, had been ‘the most horrendous storm’ where grief was never far away. 

But he made the film with Channel 4 because it was what Victoria wanted. 

“It also continues Victoria’s charity work which she drove with her indefatigable energy and charisma right up until the day before she died, giving an interview for Stand Up to Cancer. 

“She did so much with her family and friends to get out of this awful experience what she could and raise money for charity – nearly £200,000. 

“As hard as it was, there was never any question that I wouldn’t do my best to help in any way I could. It has been such a beautiful experience working with Cancer Research UK and Channel 4, with people pouring passion into helping people through terrible situations. These acts feel like the zenith of humanity, putting humans in their best light.