Cancer patient’s court win to have surrogate children

AWOMAN left infertile after her cancer was not spotted for four years has been awarded the costs of having surrogate children in a landmark ruling.

Whittington Hospital NHS Trust in London had admitted negligence in failing to detect signs of her cervical cancer.

It led to the woman – known only as XX – requiring gruelling chemo-radiotherapy treatment, leaving her infertile at 29.

XX, now 36, said one of her “central ambitions in life” was to have her own family. She was awarded £580,000 in compensation. But the High Court refused to award damages to cover the costs of four commercial surrogacies in California, where the practice is legal and binding.

The case then went to the Court of Appeal which ruled in December 2018, that XX was entitled to as much as an additional £560,000 to cover the cost of having children in the US.

However, the NHS trust challenged that judgment and took it to the Supreme Court, Britain’s highest judicial body, arguing that the Court of Appeal was wrong to award the additional damages because commercial surrogacy is “contrary to public policy”.

The practice of paying a surrogate is not legal in the UK other than for “reasonable expenses”.

Anne Kavanagh, XX’s solicitor, welcoming the final ruling on Wednesday, said: “The only option available to our client in starting a family is through surrogacy, using her own eggs which were harvested just before she started chemo-radiotherapy, as well as using donor eggs.

“The landmark judgment has confirmed that, to achieve the family she was denied by the admitted negligence of the trust, XX is entitled to funds to cover the cost of surrogacy in California as well as the use of donor eggs.

“We will continue to support XX as she now attempts to look to the future and hopefully realise her dream of having the family she has always wanted.”