‘I HARDLY DARED TO LET MYSELF BELIEVE IT’
Leanne Hugglestone had almost given up hope of becoming pregnant, then she had the best birthday present ever, reports Liz Day
AFTER going through treatment for breast cancer, Leanne Hugglestone feared she might never be able to have children despite being desperate to start a family.
But the civil servant from Cardiff was delighted to discover on her 36th birthday that she is pregnant – and has just found out she is expecting a little girl.
“It was the best birthday present I could have asked for,” said Leanne, who was diagnosed with breast cancer aged 32.
When she received the diagnosis, Leanne was warned that treatments like chemotherapy could affect her ability to become pregnant and decided to have her eggs frozen.
She went to an IVF clinic following her lumpectomy in May 2012 where fertility specialists managed to collect and preserve three of her eggs. Leanne started chemotherapy a month later before taking part in a radiotherapy trial and starting a course of tamoxifen in January 2013.
She also had a preventative double mastectomy, which she agreed to have filmed for a TV documentary called Mastectomy And Me.
“Body image is difficult, dating is difficult,” admitted Leanne, who had never thought about starting a family until she was told she might not be able to.
Leanne, who is single, went through two rounds of IVF at the Wales Fertility Institute last year using her frozen eggs and sperm donation from America, but they were unsuccessful.
“I was a bit disappointed, but I didn’t give up,” she said.
Leanne then had IUI treatment in February, after being given fertility drugs to increase her chanc- es of conceiving. The third treatment used her own eggs, as her fertility had started to improve.
She went for a follow-up appointment on February 16 – her birthday – and was told she was pregnant. Leanne then went for a six-week scan, when she saw her baby for the first time.
“It was a bit surreal, I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I could see this tiny thing, no bigger than a kidney bean, with a heartbeat.
“I wanted the treatment to work so badly, I hardly dared to let myself believe it. All I could think was: ‘It’s failed before, how has it happened now?’”
Leanne was over-the-moon to share the news with her family – mum Ann, dad David, sister Melanie, and twin brothers Neil and Andrew. Last week, she had her 20-week scan and was told she is expecting a girl, due in October.
Leanne has already started to decorate a nursery in her flat in Heath, with a helping hand from her dad.
“I’m single, but I’m lucky to have a great network of family and friends,” she said. “I knew my life wasn’t going to be a fairytale and I was never going to wait around for Prince Charming.
“It’s all about weighing up what you want from life. Going through a cancer diagnosis does give you a sense of perspective and I realised I definitely do want children.”
She added: “If you go through breast cancer at a young age, that doesn’t mean you have to give up hope of having kids.
“The opportunity is there for fertility treatment regardless of whether you’re a straight couple, a gay couple or single like me. It’s a long and emotional process, but don’t give up.”