WHEN a woman decided to donate eggs to a couple who were desperately trying for a baby she gave them something it is difficult to put a price on – hope.

Twins Jasper and Ophelia were born in Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester to a couple who feared they may never be able to have children.

Their parents Jonathan O’Toole and Lisa Haycox-O’Toole, of Franche, Kidderminster, find it hard to describe how overwhelming it was to give birth to a boy and a girl after an agonising two-year wait to find an egg donor.

Mrs Haycox-O’Toole, aged 42, was undergoing IVF treatment when she found out her body did not produce egg follicles and that egg donation would be her only chance of ever having children.

When she found out she could not have children she was devastated.

She said: “I felt suicidal to begin with. It was like a bereavement.

Children were everything we had ever wanted. You think, ‘I will have a career, I will get married, I will have children’ – that’s what most women want. Then it doesn’t happen because you haven’t got the tools to achieve that.

“It’s like having your womanhood stripped away from you. I was already 36 and my biological clock was ticking. With every year my chance of getting pregnant was diminishing. All your friends have already got children. You’re there waiting, hoping somebody will come forward and donate.”

But an egg donor did come forward, the egg was fertilised with her husband’s sperm and after IVF at Birmingham Women’s Hospital she gave birth to two healthy children.

Mrs Haycox-O’Toole said: “Not a day goes by without me thinking of that woman who I have never even met. It’s the best gift that any woman can give another. They are not giving you a baby but they are giving you the chance to make your own baby. She have me the greatest gift of all – hope.”

The journey has also been a rollercoaster of emotions for her husband Jonathan, aged 40, a business development manager.

He said: “It has been stressful and challenging but as you can see, we have two wonderful children. IVF was our only hope to have children.”

There are currently more than 200 couples in the region who need the help of an egg donor to start a family, but the current waiting list is two-and-a-half years long.

Birmingham Women's Hospital’s Give Hope, Give Life appeal aims to raise awareness of egg donation and address the major shortage of available eggs.

Research reveals that women in the West Midlands, including Worcestershire, are in the dark about the need for donors. Over two thirds (68 per cent) of women aged 18-35 underestimate the number of couples (1 in 6) who have fertility problems and over half (56 per cent) do not realise the extent of the waiting time for eggs.

Dr Jackson Kirkman-Brown of the assisted conception unit at Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust said: “Unfortunately, due to a shortage of donors, the average wait for a donor egg across the West Midlands region is approximately two-and-a half years, with the length of wait increasing year on year.

“Like many areas, in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands, there’s lack of awareness that there is a donor shortage. Many women simply don’t realise that donors are needed or that they themselves could become a donor. The Give Hope, Give Life appeal aims to address this problem and hopefully boost the number of donors.”

Birmingham Women’s Hospital has been providing a high standard of care to couples and individuals experiencing fertility problems since 1980, including many couples from Worcestershire. The assisted conception unit is one of only two in the country based in a dedicated women’s hospital that provides patients with continuity of care from diagnosis to delivery.

The embryology laboratory, completed in 2006, is one of the few in Europe, and the only one in central England, to be run as a “clean room” which means that the environment is optimised for the culture of eggs and embryos.

THE EGGS FACTOR

WHAT IS EGG DONATION?

Some couples fail to achieve a pregnancy because the female partner may have suffered a premature menopause. Other women may have lost the use of their ovaries due to disease, surgery or the treatment of cancer, while some women carry inherited genetic diseases and are thus seeking donated eggs so as not to transmit the disease to their children. In these cases, if a donor becomes available, an egg is donated, fertilised by the father’s sperm and then implanted into the mother, who carries the child.

Donors from Asian families are particularly in demand.

HOW DO WOMEN DONATE EGGS?

Birmingham Women’s Hospital’s Give Hope, Give Life is seeking donors from all walks of life. They are looking for donors of any ethnicity, aged 23-35 and with or without children. Those interested in finding out more about egg donation are encouraged to call the clinic on 0121 623 6600 or visit ngdt.co.uk. Also visit bhamivf.org.uk.