... BUT WE SPENT £27K TRYING FOR A SIBLING

HEATHER CURTIS, 39, is a teacher. She lives in Kent with her husband and their daughter, Elsie, five, who was conceived during a free round of IVF on the NHS. Heather says: WHEN I fell pregnant naturally in February 2010, I thought we were the luckiest couple in the world. Happy, healthy and with a baby on the way, I felt completely blessed.

Then I suffered a horrific miscarriage, which required emergency surgery, and suddenly our luck seemed to run out.

The next two years saw disappointment after disappointment, as I just couldn’t get pregnant. We tried various diets claiming to boost fertility, including lots of avocados and tomatoes, plus zinc and selenium-rich foods like Brazil nuts, but nothing happened.

Our GP referred us for tests, which showed there was no obvious reason why we couldn’t conceive, and we were referred to a fertility clinic. We were allowed two free rounds on the NHS and were overjoyed when it worked on round two.

Elsie was born in January 2014 and, completely in love with our daughter, we then decided to try for another baby but no longer qualified for NHS treatment.

Since then, we’ve discovered the random, unfair and brutal world of IVF. So far, we’ve spent more than £27,000 on three rounds — one of which cost £13,000. We’ve remortaged and borrowed from my Dad and my in-laws, and still no baby.

We were thinking about having IVF again this year but our hearts aren’t in it. We’re working so hard to pay off our debt, and when I think about that money we’ve spent — and all the holidays we could have enjoyed with our little girl, that we couldn’t afford, it breaks my heart.