From battle to bliss as Wilmington cancer survivor gets surprise proposal

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Last week, Angelica May thought she had just finished the hardest battle she had ever faced.

But, little did she know she was about also to get the biggest surprise of her life.

“I was not expecting that,” May said. “Like, I knew this year, he would probably propose sometime. I thought it would be later this year.”

Her boyfriend of 10 years, Imeek Watkins, proposed to her just minutes after she rang the bell, May having just beaten triple-negative breast cancer, which is a rare and aggressive cancer.

“I had a tumor in my right breast, I had to do 16 rounds of chemotherapy total,” May said.

May said her battle started last September. All the while, Imeek was right by her side.

He gave up his career of playing for an indoor football team and started working two jobs to support Angelica.

“Everything happened so fast and he had to put, he put his dreams to the side for me, to help me get through this,” May said.

May and Watkins are high school sweethearts, having met while at Laney High School.

Watkins said he began planning to propose about a month ago and felt there was never going to be a better time to do it than after May rang the bell.

“I just felt like that moment would have been the best time for her,” Watkins said. “I knew family, friends, coworkers, that’s the best time for me to have everybody there and just be able to just do it. And it happened and it was great.”

May posted a video of the bell ringing and the proposal to TikTok, where it has been viewed more than 1 million times and has nearly 245,000 likes.

May said she still has more recovery to come but is ready to start getting her life back while spreading hope to other women.

“I felt relieved, I felt like I got my life back, I can start living and I can start helping other women that’s going through what I’m going through and who is just starting their whole process because I know how it feels from the beginning, the middle to the end.”

Watkins and May said they’re still processing what they’ve been through and don’t yet have a wedding date picked.