‘SURROGATE SISTERS FULFILLED OUR DREAM’
Natalie Burton, 32, lives in Kirkby-in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, with her husband Adam and their children Aiden, seven and Zachary, two. Adam and I had only been together for three months when I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. I was just 22, and the shock diagnosis meant that in March 2012, my cervix and womb were both removed, along with a 3.5cm tumour.
After, I needed chemo and radiotherapy, which would destroy my ovaries and take away my chance of having biological children. I was advised by a specialist to freeze my eggs before having the treatment, and that there would be more chance of success if we froze them as embryos. Adam, 23, stood by me, and three eggs were successfully fertilised before being frozen.
In January 2013, I was given the all-clear from cancer, but I was devastated that I couldn’t have children. My younger sister Danielle, then 21, was pregnant with her second child, and I longed for a baby.
I’d grown close to Adam’s sister Jaki, then 29, who was already a mother of two. It was Jaki I talked to about my heartache and, after one conversation, she volunteered to be our surrogate.
I was stunned and unsure, but Jaki was certain, and once Adam got his head around his sister carrying his baby, we decided to go ahead.
In May 2014, two embryos were transferred to maximise our chances and, two weeks later, Jaki was pregnant! Our dream was finally coming true but, overwhelmed, I didn’t dare to believe it.
But in February 2015, I helped deliver our son in a birthing pool with Jaki. Adam and I named him Aiden, and four months later the court granted us a parental order. We married in August 2018, with one frozen embryo remaining.
This time, my older sister Leigh-ann, then 38, offered us the chance of giving Aiden a sibling, and she went through the whole process again with us until, in June 2019, Zachary was born.
Aiden is seven now, and Zachary is two. Adam and I are so grateful to our sisters for being our surrogates. It’s thanks to them we’re finally parents.
‘I didn’t dare to believe it’