Hugo was paralysed five years ago. At his wedding, he stood up to dance with his bride.

Five years ago, Hugo Rohling was paralysed in a motorcycle accident. He has been wheelchair-bound ever since.

However, three weeks ago at his wedding to his now-wife, Cinthia Zanuni, the Brazilian groom stood up for their first dance, with a little help from his brother and father.

After their initial choreographed dance, where Hugo was still sitting in his wheelchair, his brother and father stood on either side of him and strapped his legs to theirs. They then supported Hugo as he began to stand, with his arms around their shoulders. Cinthia then came back and embraced her husband and the party of four slowly started to sway to Sam Smith’s Make It To Me.

The video has gone viral after the clip was shared by their friend Marcelo Henrique da Silva, with 16 million views, 96,000 likes, 15,000 comments and 407,000 shares, including an Instagram post from comedian Trevor Noah.

You can watch a clip of the beautiful video here:

Explaining the story behind their wedding day, the couple have been sharing photographs and videos on their joint Instagram account, @HugoeCinthia.

In an edited version of their first dance – which is somehow even more emotional than the viral Facebook video – Hugo included this message to his new wife:

“Thank God for putting in my life this wonderful woman, loving, joyful, amusing, full of light,” he said in this English translation of his original message.

“I could not see the time of day to come, now I can call it my wife and our dream came true. I love you more than anything, my wife Cinthia Zanuni Rohling.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Hugo Rohling e Cinthia Rohling (@hugoecinthia) on Jan 10, 2019 at 10:41am PST

According to Marcelo, who originally posted the video, a friend of the couple is now crowdfunding to buy Hugo a more accessible wheelchair, with a goal of $30,000 Brazilian Real ($11,301 AUD).

“Recently Cinthia and Hugo have fallen in love with Brazil and why not tell the world with its love story. The waltz videos of their wedding already have millions of views and shares on the networks,” he wrote.

“However, Hugo still has great difficulty in getting around because his chair is not one of the lightest. So let’s buy a chair so he can have a little more accessibility?”

You can access and donate their campaign through the Brazilian crowdfunding platform, Vakinha.

Did you get teary while watching the video? Tell us in a comment below.