This is the heartwarming moment a couple who were told they couldn’t have children after battling cancer found out wellwishers were paying for their IVF treatment.
Marisha Chaplin, 25, and fiancé Jon Hibbs, 28, were both diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma when they teenagers.
The couple fell for each other while waiting to undergo chemotherapy after bumping into each other in the hospital waiting room.
After they both beat cancer they moved in together but doctors warned they would never be able to conceive naturally because Marisha showed symptoms of going
through early menopause.
Doctors fertilised an egg which had been donated by another woman with Jon’s sperm which was then frozen in 2014.
Last May they couple were overjoyed when daughter Evie was born following a successful round of IVF which was free on the NHS.
The couple qualified for one free IVF cycle but were told they would have to pay for future attempts, which routinely costs around £2,000.
The couple desperately wanted another child but had a race against time because the remaining embryos were due to be destroyed next month after being kept for three years.
Incredibly, just weeks before the deadline, a mum’s Facebook group successfully raised the cash the couple needed to have another round of IVF.
In an emotional video, Marisha and Jon, from Cotgrave, Notts., were shown a slideshow created by a Facebook group made up of new parents.
At the end of the video montage, the online group revealed that they had raised the money to fund IVF treatment.
Marisha said: “We tried to conceive for years and years but nothing happened, so we went for tests a few years ago and they said I was back going through the menopause.
“The tests found that I’d need an egg donor and that I’d need IVF as well.
“The donor was quite close to me in terms of build and height so we said we will go ahead with her.
“It’s Jon’s sperm first off, after a few days they checked to make sure the embryos all survived and are of really good quality, then organised it to have it transferred into me.
“The donated eggs would be kept for three years from when we made them and that deadline is this August.
“We had been saying we may need to remortgage to afford the IVF. We wouldn’t be able to afford it at all by August.
“It was literally one of those things, we were saying it’s never going to happen – we don’t want to get in debt and we don’t have the money.
“I was getting really stressed and upset.”
But her dream of having another baby were kept alive thanks to a Facebook group of mums she had been in contact with since Evie’s birth last May.
After sharing her story with the Facebook group, called ‘May Babies 2016’, the mums rallied round to raise the £2,000 Marisha needed to use the frozen embryos before the deadline expired.
Marisha, who sells beauty products, said: “It’s only an online thing, the mums are from all around the country and I’ve only met one other lady from Nottingham.
“I just chatted to a few of them, telling the group about my experience and how I wished for another child. I never expected them to do actually raise the money for us.
“I had no idea, neither did my other half.
“He was just told that I absolutely had to go live on our group last Saturday night, that it had to be at 8.30pm and that I had to press play on a video.
“I thought I was going to do a Q&A on make-up, and that was it.
“I just couldn’t believe it.
“It was just beyond belief.
“It’s completely life changing.
“I just can’t believe what’s happened.
“None of the other women struggled conceiving their children so I didn’t think they understood or cared, but they obviously had other agendas.
“It has been making everyone cry – I can’t watch it at all any more.
“Hopefully this time next year we will be pregnant and waiting for another one coming along.”
Railway technician Jon said: “I didn’t really know what to make of it to be honest.
“It shocked me. I’d never spoken to any of them.
“It’s basically changing our lives again.
“When we had Evie we thought we were really lucky, now we’ve got a chance to for her to have a little brother or sister.
“I can’t say thank you to them enough.”
Mum Tamar Hajizadeh, 30, who was one of the mums involved in the fundraising, said: “It’s giving a gift of life – we hope that it sticks.
“The most important thing is the happiness and seeing her reaction, and the gift of giving new life.”
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