After 4 years of fertility treatment I never thought I’d be in a position where I’d be writing a success story. To whoever is reading this I’ve felt every emotion you’ve felt a million times over. Reading success stories on websites and in clinic waiting areas either gives you hope or makes you sad you’re not there yet.

We started our journey in 2015 doing PGD for a genetic condition my husband carries and were told we were likely to have success straight away as we had no fertility issues. After 4 years, 6 failed transfers, £30,000 down, numerous consultant opinions and every immune treatment and extra addition you could think of tried, we turned to surrogacy at Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

We were rejected by 2 other clinics as there were no medical reasons why I couldn’t carry - thankfully Dr Drakeley and Gill Hathaway took a realistic approach to our situation, looked beyond obvious medical reasons and said yes to using a surrogate (my friend had offered).

Our first surrogacy transfer using one of our worst poorly graded embryos worked and I’m writing this with our baby sleeping in my arms.

Obviously I owe the majority of our success to my friend for offering to carry our baby, it is something I will never be able to repay.

The scars of infertility will fade but will never leave me - I used to hate people saying to me ‘it will happen when the time is right/ never give up’.

Positive mantras can have a negative effect sometimes and so my advice to whoever is reading this is if you have the strength, finances and ability to keep going, then do, even if your path ends up taking a different route to get there.

You are stronger than you think and never lose H.O.P.E (Hold On Pain Ends)

PS: don’t worry about embryo grading either, as you can see they can make beautiful babies.

Caroline & Mark