Woman gives birth to her own grandson after becoming surrogate for her cancer-surviving daughter
Baby Jack was conceived through IVF with eggs taken before cancer treatment began
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Your support makes all the difference.A woman whose daughter was left infertile by cancer treatment has given birth to her own grandson.
Julie Bradford, 45, acted as a surrogate for her 21-year-old daughter Jessica Jenkins, who survived cervical cancer having been diagnosed with the disease aged 18.
Ms Bradford gave birth last Friday to baby Jack, conceived through IVF with eggs taken from her daughter before she began radiotherapy, reported the Daily Mirror.
The hairdresser from Rhymney in south Wales, who is already a mother of three, told the newspaper her new grandson was a “Christmas miracle”.
“Any mother would do this for their child,” she said. “If cancer couldn't beat us there was no way I wasn't having a baby for Jessica.“
Ms Jenkins, whose cancer diagnosis left her unable to have children by herself, was present at her mother’s bedside during the birth of her son.
She told the Mirror her “depth of despair” was not getting cancer, which could be overcome, but “being told point blank I’d never have kids”.
Ms Jenkins has been in remission from the disease since August 2014.
She and her husband Rees Jenkins, 27, decided to go ahead with IVF earlier this year using the 21 eggs harvested shortly before she began treatment.
The eggs were frozen at University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, reported the BBC.
“My mam is the most brave and amazing woman in the world. I love her so much for giving me my son,“ Ms Jenkins told the broadcaster.
Ms Bradford and her daughter have been campaigning to lower the age for routine smear tests for women in Wales from 24 to 18 after doctors told Ms Jenkins she was too young to have cancer.
Doctors originally believed Ms Jenkins had thrush when she had symptoms such as bleeding and painful sex, but repeat visits revealed a tumour on her cervix.
The family have not ruled out having further children and hope to use pioneering womb transplant technology, with Ms Bradford offering to donate her own.
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