In early 2011 both of my sisters announced they were pregnant. I am 1 of 4 children and I’m the oldest. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, I’m supposed to have a baby first, make our parents grandparents. This was exciting news for our family but it made me realise, I’d always wanted to be a mum but was waiting for everything to fall into place.

Later in the year both sisters delivered beautiful baby girls. I was even at the birth for one of them. It was an amazing, wonderful thing to witness and made me reconsider everything. Now all I could think about was becoming a mum.

However, in 2012 my relationship ended. I was 28 and what was my life ambition, life’s dream, was slipping away. How could I become a mother when I didn’t have a partner?

I cannot remember how it came to me but in September 2012 I began looking into IVF as a single person. I did lots of research, the NHS does not offer single women IVF in my area so I began focusing on private clinics and came across LWC in Harley Street. It seemed perfect. It also offered an option for egg-sharing which enabled two women to help each other. As a donor it would reduce my costs and as a recipient you receive eggs required for treatment.

I booked an appointment for an initial consultation. When I arrived I was amazed by the clinic. I met with a consultant and talked through the options available and the possibility to egg-share. While at that visit I also had a pelvic ultrasound and blood tests to investigate my suitability for IVF and egg-sharing.

Once all the screenings came back clear, I was invited back for counselling. Here you talk through the possible outcomes of treatment, whether you have considered them all and how you think you will cope with egg-sharing and all the implications. The counselling went well and in 2013 I began to move forward with treatment. By this time I was in a relationship but he encouraged me to continue on this journey due to medical reasons.

In July I began the regular trips to London for scans and blood tests, daily injections, sometimes twice a day. In August I returned to LWC for egg retrieval. I was warned that if I’d produced more than 20 eggs the rest of the treatment would be postponed due to the risk of Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS). I had 29 eggs collected, 15 for us and 14 for the recipient. I travelled home and awaited the call to see how many eggs fertilised. The call came the next day to say that 11 of the 15 eggs had fertilised. A few days later we found out we had 6 blastocysts suitable for freezing.

In October 2013 I returned to the clinic to begin the frozen embryo transfer process. This involved more scans and medication to ensure my lining was suitable for implantation. October 29^th I witnessed them return 2 embryos in to my uterus via a catheter. On November 10^th we took the pregnancy test provided and discovered we were pregnant.

We had a couple of early scans due to some bleeding and discovered we were blessed with one baby. In May we found out we were having a boy and in July our world changed forever. Oliver is now a cheeky little boy who is thriving at school. He is also eager for a baby so we are preparing to return to LWC this year.