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Couple overjoyed after frozen sperm cells produce a pair of miracle babies
A MAN who was left infertile by cancer treatment 15 years ago is now a proud father-of-two.
Ian Morris, 49, of Station Road, Corby Glen, was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia in 1994.
He and his wife, Allison, 39, were warned that the treatment for the disease would leave him infertile so they decided to freeze his sperm.
Thirteen years later Mariella, now two, was born followed last year by Herbie, six months.
For the couple, who had only been married two years, their priority was for Ian to get better and he only gave two sperm samples.
He said: “I wasn’t well enough to think about a family and I was trying to fight leukaemia.”
Allison added: “We knew afterwards what we had done was a bit silly.”
Ian had a bone marrow transplant in 1995 but the couple decided to wait until he was fully better before they started trying for a family, which they did in 2005.
Allison said: “When the first attempt was unsuccessful it was a real shock because I’d had all the tests and knew there was nothing wrong with me.”
Allison was so confident that she was pregnant she did not do a home test and was devastated when she was told the attempt had failed.
Four attempts later the couple moved to the specialist clinic Care Fertility in Nottingham for treatement.
Allison said: “I did a test but it took quite a long time so I thought it hadn’t worked.”
But when the line appeared Allison started shrieking with excitement.
Ian said: “I thought the place was on fire!
“If the attempt hadn’t worked we would’ve looked at things again.”
Quite soon after Mariella was born the couple decided that they wanted to have another child.
Allison said: “I found out on Mother’s Day that I was pregnant. I was so excited.”
But shortly after Allison became pregnant with Herbie Ian became ill and they found out he needed a liver transplant.
Ian said: “I got told I was very close to not being here. It’s bad enough having a bone marrow transplant but then this.”
Ian had a transplant in January this year and is now recovering well.
He said: “These little ones are keeping me going.”
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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