Beijing, China (BBN)-A Chinese man with terminal cancer has married a sex doll because he didn’t want to leave behind a bereaved widow.

The man is said to have wanted to experience the full splendour of a wedding before he died, after being diagnosed with cancer, but didn’t want to leave a human being struggling to cope with his loss, reports the Daily Mail.

The ‘newly-weds’ appeared in a series of surprisingly tender wedding photographs: hugging in front of a sunlit window, reflected romantically in a shadowy mirror and staring lovingly into each other’s eyes.

His blushing ‘bride’ was treated to all the trimmings of a traditional wedding, including a make-up artist and a selection of dresses to pose in.

One, an extravagant white gown with a flowing train, has been fanned out to one side of the couple as the young man kneels before his new ‘wife’.

In another photograph, in which the doll wears a lilac dress decorated with sequins and precious stones, the young man embraces his bride from behind as they stand in front of a large sunlit window.

If it wasn’t for the bride’s undeniably plastic features, the pair could be any young couple preparing to spend their lives together.

Although the 28-year-old man has yet to be identified, Chinese internet users have offered up a range of weird and wonderful possible explanations behind the photographs, which have gone viral.

One suggestion shrugs off the photographs as an unusual marketing campaign.

CCTV reported: ‘Some netizens recently revealed that the man is actually suffering from a deadly cancer.

‘In order not to hurt other people’s feelings, he chose to marry an artificial doll instead of a real person.’

BBN/SK/AD