FEBRUARY: Miracle baby born after MS

LoUISE wILLEttS, 36, an office team manager for an It firm, lives in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, with husband Steve, 45, a store manager, son owen, 13, and the couple’s ‘miracle baby’ Joy, born in February.

LOUISE SAYS: Being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2010 was a shock. I’d always wanted to have another baby and Steve and I wanted a child together, but because of the MS, which is caused by the immune system attacking the nerves, I delayed trying.

The condition was stable for the first few years, but by 2015 it was difficult for me to get out of bed. I had no balance and couldn’t even pick up a knife and fork.

My medication wasn’t working. Then doctors at Sheffield Teaching Hospital contacted me about a trial using a stem cell transplant to ‘reboot’ your immune sys-tem, for patients like me with relapsing-remitting MS.

First I had to have chemotherapy to wipe out my defunct immune system. It would make me infertile, so I had my eggs collected: four were fertilised with Steve’s sperm and frozen.

After the transplant, it took a year for my strength to return: at first I still expe-rienced some MS symptoms but that got better.

Steve and I were desperate for a child together and I hoped the MS hadn’t destroyed our chances.

We had one embryo put into my womb in May 2017 and it worked first time: when Joy was born I just felt so incredibly lucky. And scans on my MS have been clear. A double blessing.