A cervical cancer survivor has been dealt another blow when she was told she can’t have kids – and will have to stump up £5,000 to pay for IVF treatment for a surrogate.
Amy Jukes, 28, had a life-saving hysterectomy after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer four years ago, but it meant she could never carry children of her own.
She had eggs extracted from her ovaries before her womb was removed and they have been implanted with her fiancé Scott Adams’ sperm.
The couple, who have been together for 11 years, decided go through host surrogacy, where embryos will be transferred into a chosen surrogate via IVF.
Amy, who is now three years cancer free, has 11 embryos in deep freeze at hospital, ready to be inserted into a surrogate mother.
But the paediatric nurse, who had always dreamed of a family of her own, was hit with more crushing news when she was told she had to pay £5,000 for IVF treatment on the surrogate.
The surrogate mother would have to undergo hormone tests, scans, blood tests and have the embryos inserted into her womb.
The first round of IVF treatment is usually free on the NHS for would-be mums.
Amy, of Barnsley, South Yorks., said: “It’s unfair because it’s not my fault. It feels like I have been punished for having cancer.
“It’s not as if I asked to get cancer and for that to happen.
“The NHS paid for the tests I had to go through, but the surrogate has to go through the same and I have to pay for them and the insertion of the embryos.
“If the embryos were being inserted into me, I wouldn’t have to pay.”
Amy was diagnosed with cancer in November 2015 , six months before her 25th birthday, and had a hysterectomy, an operation to remove her womb, in January 2016.
Doctors told her the operation was the best chance she had of surviving cancer.
Amy said: “They’d just caught it in time as it had spread to my lymph nodes. They removed my womb and removed the lymph nodes in my groin.
“They told me if I had been diagnosed six months later it would have spread and I could have died.”
Amy’s sister Chloe has set up an online fundraising page to help her raise the money she desperately needs to start a family.
Chloe said: “I cannot exaggerate how much strength my sister has, she is a mother without a child and to go through this hurricane of emotions and illness and come out of the other side a more positive and driven woman is beyond me.
“So I have now made it my personal mission to help her dreams come true of having her own little family.”
Amy added: “To be a mum just means everything to me, I would love to have my own flesh and blood.
“Scott has always wanted to be a dad. It is going to be a long process, but we’re hopeful we will have our own perfect little family.
“It’s amazing what Chloe has done for me.
“I would never have done that myself, but that’s what she wanted to do for me and I love her to bits.”
Scott said: “I will always remember the moment when we was sat in the room with a few doctors I knew from then it wasn’t good news.
“When they said Amy had got cancer my body stopped I couldn’t move or speak.
“I felt live our world had ended and all I could think about was Amy and how she is feeling.
“Four years down the line and we still re live the moment.
“It’s a hard time at the minute with me and Amy having friends that are pregnant.
“They are all excited and me and Amy are just sad because we will never experience it how we would want to.
“The day will come for me and Amy to have our moment it will be special for us. We will be strong together.”
Visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/ivf-treatment-for-cervical-cancer-survivor to donate to Amy’s fund.