A couple told they would never have children after both being diagnosed with cancer have defied medics by celebrating the arrival of their first baby.
Joanne Forster, 28, was told by doctors she might never be able to conceive after she and husband Robert, 34, were struck down with two similar types of the killer disease.
Former boxer Robert battled non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2006 before he met Joanne who was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma in 2008.
Doctors told the pair to donate sperm and get eggs frozen but neither had time as they battled their rare types of cancer.
But incredibly, Joanne fell pregnant last year and son Henry was born weighing 7lbs 11oz at the Royal Stoke University Hospital nine days early on December 25 at 1.20am.
New dad Robert said: “I did not believe it at first, I thought it was a wind-up after we both had cancer.
“Joanne text me and said she thought I needed to come home from work.
“I went home and she was there with a pregnancy test in her hand.
“What has happened is really amazing.
“It’s great, especially as Henry was born on Christmas Day.
“It just makes it that little bit more special. It really is a bit of a Christmas miracle for us.”
Robert, who is originally from Portsmouth, moved to Stoke-on-Trent to train as a boxer before being diagnosed with cancer nine years ago.
He then met Joanne while working at Dovegate Prison near Uttoxeter, Staffs.
Robert added: “Being diagnosed with cancer pretty much ended my professional boxing career there and then.
“After I was treated I ended up working in the prison service and I met Joanne when I started working there.
“They said when I was undergoing treatment I should give a sperm donation but at the time I was fighting cancer and I didn’t want to do that.
“They said the same thing to Joanne saying she should get her eggs frozen, but she had to undergo chemotherapy so quickly there simply wasn’t time.”
Joanne, who lives with Robert and Henry in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs., added: “When they told me I had got cancer they asked if I wanted to freeze my eggs.
“Then they said I had to start chemotherapy straight away or I would be dead in three months.
“When I found out I was pregnant I was completely over the moon.
“I never thought this day would come.
“Henry wasn’t supposed to arrive until January 3.
“The fact he was born on Christmas Day, after we’d been told we would not be able to have children, just makes it that little bit more special.”
