Romance isn't the only reason high school sweethearts Cody Johnston and Sarah Burkhart moved their planned summer wedding forward to Feb. 20.

Johnston, 24, figures his immune system will be recovered from his latest round of chemotherapy by then, and the cancer spreading through his body makes waiting inadvisable.

He learned Feb. 3 that a stem cell transplant he had in September to slow the disease was ineffective, and that his doctors told him he has less than a year to live.

“I am shocked and I'm still dealing with it. I honestly don't think it has set in yet,” said Johnston. “It was very shocking for sure. Those are words nobody wants to hear, not even on their worst enemy.”

Burkhart said, “We're just hanging in there as best we can, I guess. He's taking care of the kids while I'm at work.”

Johnston first met Burkhart, 26, in 2012, when they were both students at Knoch High School. They have been together since.

They have two children together, Charlie, 5, and Everleigh, 3 months old.

“I first met him through friends,” Burkhart said. “We were real young when we met.”

But Burkhart knew he was a keeper.

“He's cute and he's sweet and he's funny. I love him. He's a good dad,” she said.

Johnston worked for Adler & Sons tree service, and she is a licensed practical nurse working at Concordia Lutheran Ministries in Jefferson Township.

They bought a house in Butler Township together in July.

But the two have faced bigger problems than qualifying for a first mortgage.

In 2015, Johnston noticed a swelling on his right testicle, and a biopsy confirmed it was cancer.

Johnston said his doctor removed the testicle.

“He thought he had got it all. He thought after that surgery, I would be OK,” he said.

But he wasn't. Persistent back pain led to a CT scan that showed the cancer has spread to his lungs and abdomen.

“So then, with surgery, (they) removed a couple of lesions off my lung. They gave me chemo for a couple months,” Johnston said.

“After that, everything had shrunk and everything was looking good, and they put me in remission,” he said.

The interlude lasted five years until last fall, when he experienced back pain again, and tests revealed the cancer was back.

“It had come back this time on my liver, lungs and abdomen,” Johnston said. “So, they gave me high-dose chemo to see what that could do.”

Unfortunately, the treatments weren't effective. Neither was the stem cell transplant procedure he underwent last year.

Johnston said his doctors said they didn't think there was much more they could do, and the prognosis was that he had less than a year to live.

They sought a second opinion, which wasn't much better.

Doctors at Allegheny General Hospital gave Johnston the option of trying two different types of chemotherapy that he hadn't tried yet.

Still, Johnston said his doctors told him even if he goes for another round of chemotherapy, “the chances of it curing anything are very, very low.”

His prognosis accelerated their wedding plans.

“We just planned on sometime in the summer,” Johnston said. “Because of everything, we had pushed it pretty far forward, just in case something would happen.”

Burkhart and Johnston are getting help with their accelerated wedding planning.

The couple attends New Life Christian Ministries, 139 Knoch Road, Saxonburg, which has agreed to provide the venue for the 50-person wedding.

The church agreed to waive the usual pre-wedding classes.

And Burkhart said Shannon Hale, owner of the Rusted Rose Bridal Shop in Kittanning, has provided much more than a wedding gown and dress for her maid of honor.

Hale said she received an email stating Burkhart was in a hurry for an off-the-rack wedding dress.

“I met them. Their story touched my heart. I wanted to help them anyway I could,” Hale said.

Hale is throwing herself into the challenge of the fast-forwarded nuptials.

“I've done them quickly, but not quite this quickly. I have never done a two-week turnaround,” she said.

Hale is lining up a wedding cake baker, photographer, and hair and makeup help for the big day.

“She is an amazing mom and a nurse. They are wonderful people, and the community is coming together for them,” she said.

So far, boxes are getting checked off.

Burkhart is picking out dresses for herself and her maid of honor. Hale has a seamstress who will do the alterations.

Hale has lined up a photographer, baker, and hair and makeup artist.

She's still working on the flowers.

“I want them to have a wonderful day, something they can remember and their kids can remember,” Hale said.