Up until last year, new Married At First Sight Australia bride Lyndall Grace believed she wouldn’t live to walk down the aisle. Diagnosed with cystic fibrosis – a debilitating disease that damages the lungs – as a baby, she was told she wouldn’t make it to 30.
However, after a “miracle” medication –which could add up to 30 years to her life expectancy – was approved in Oz in early 2022, Lyndall bit the bullet and did the unthinkable by applying for MAFS.
Laughing, she tells Woman’s Day, “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I can get married!’ I guess when you’ve been waiting your entire adult life to even let yourself think about marriage, you simply don’t want to wait any longer.”
The Perth-based accountant, 27, admits her condition has made life challenging, adding that she’s seen her “fair share of bad reactions in the past”, but the blonde beauty isn’t going to let her illness stand in her way any longer.
“I felt for a long time that I had to be perfect in every aspect to make up for the ‘burden’ I had and I felt so guilty about not being able to promise a whole life to someone,” she says, adding that it meant she tried “very hard to avoid long-term relationships”.
“Now I know that it’s never been a burden and anyone who sees it that way isn’t deserving of me. It’s hard to describe a lot of the time. It’s scary, but it’s normal. It’s strenuous, but it’s just how I’ve always been. I hate it, but I wouldn’t change it.”
Talking of her dream husband, Lyndall says she hopes she finds “a passionate, warm and kind” man at the altar. “Someone who loves hard and wholeheartedly, and isn’t afraid of the messy things.”
And now that she can tick marriage off her bucket list, Lyndall still has plenty of milestones she wants to conquer – only this time, she’ll have a husband by her side.
“I want to travel – I never would have gotten on a plane a year ago – and I want to build a lovely home to spend the rest of my many, many new years in.”
Married At First Sight Australia airs Sunday – Wednesday at 7:30pm on Three and ThreeNow.
