Louise and Steve Willets story

Louise, aged 36, from Dinnington, describes her journey towards welcoming her daughter through treatment at Jessop Fertility:

“After suffering from an aggressive form of MS, I was offered a stem cell transplant at Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which meant my immune system would be rebooted to halt the disease using chemotherapy.

The MS team explained to me that while this treatment had the potential to drastically improve my quality of my life, it did pose a risk to fertility, and so I was given the option of IVF at the Trust’s assisted conception unit, Jessop Fertility.

We decided to go ahead and the team at Jessop Fertility froze and stored four of our embryos. We instantly felt comfortable in their care and knew they were concerned with making sure they were attending to our needs. The thought of the egg collection procedure terrified me but the staff made it an enjoyable experience.

Once my stem cell treatment had completed we were overjoyed to discover it had worked and I was symptom free. However we also discovered that my fertility had indeed been damaged and so we nervously decided to proceed with embryo implantation.

Thankfully, our dreams came true in the form of our gorgeous little girl, Joy, who was born on 12th February 2018.

Finding out I was pregnant was the best feeling in the world. After preparing ourselves for possible disappointment we were stunned to see the positive test result and we were totally overcome with emotion. It’s impossible to describe the love you feel for your baby when you hold them for the first time, I suppose it’s a bit like winning the lottery but you feel your heart burst with love.

Baby Joy is a content and chilled baby who smiles at every opportunity and warms our hearts, we love her so much.

The staff at Jessop Fertility really were excellent, they listened to our concerns at every stage and worked to help us feel reassured. It might feel like the odds for a successfully IVF pregnancy aren't high enough to risk going through the emotional rollercoaster of treatment but it is absolutely worth it when you get that positive result and even though I never once believed it would happen it absolutely did happen so miracles can come true.”