Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MOTHER’S JOY
THE moment the pregnancy strip turned positive, Natalie Kelly knew that once she’d had her own babies, she wanted to help others fulfil their dream of having a family.
Because Natalie, 38, was told a health condition put her chances of conceiving a child at next to none.
So when she beat the odds and had her own son and two daughters naturally, she vowed to help someone else struggling to have a baby.
And in November she gave birth to healthy 6lb 11oz tot Lyra – making the dream of having a family come true for gay couple James and Matt Pritchard-Evans.
Natalie, a volunteer teaching assistant, says: “I’ve helped make a family for someone else and that is what I’ve wanted to do for years. It’s a dream come true for me, too.”
FERTILITY
It was when she was 21 that Natalie was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries – a condition that can affect fertility. Doctors said she would need another woman to carry a baby for her if she ever wanted to be a mother.
Natalie recalls: “Being told I needed a surrogate to have a family was devastating as, even at 21, I knew I wanted to be a mum one day.”
A few months later, she was still coming to terms with that heartbreaking news when she was diagnosed with malignant melanoma – the most deadly form of skin cancer possible – after a mole on her arm turned black and scaly.
The operations to remove it went well – but there was another blow to her motherhood plans, as Natalie was advised not to start fertility treatment or to begin looking for a surrogate for two years while her skin cancer was closely monitored.
When two years had passed with no sign of cancer returning, Natalie dared once more to hope that a family could be within her grasp.
She’d met a new partner a few months earlier – but before she started to investigate the world of surrogacy, to her amazement she fell pregnant naturally.
She says: “It was such a shock,
I’d never expected it. Despite the doctors telling me I would never be a mum myself, I was actually pregnant. As I stared at the positive test in wonder, I vowed to myself that one day I would help someone else to have a baby.
“I vowed that I would be a surrogate and make someone else’s dream of having a family come true – as I knew what it felt like to think you could never be a parent.”
After a smooth pregnancy, her son Archie, now 12, was born. “Holding him in my arms was the