Supporting others, to achieve their dreams to have their own baby through IVF.

My name is Sarah Anderson, and I found myself on what I can only describe as a rollercoaster of emotions, failures and almost cost me my marriage journey several years ago to have the family I so longed for.

I underwent four rounds of IVF, which started in 2013 and finally ended in 2014 when I had a simple procedure on the NHS to unblock my tubes and have thermal destruction of endometriosis, which I was not aware was even the issue of why we wasn't falling pregnant. I was told that myself and my husband’s chances of falling natural were extremely slim and that IVF would be the best move for us. We hit the National headlines in the Daily Mail and local papers in 2016 when we made the decision to speak out about our story, to raise awareness, as looking back now if I had fought my battle with the NHS to have thorough investigations carried out we would not be £21K+ out of pocket. We were not entitled to any funding through the NHS as my husband had a child already from a previous relationship, and the criteria in Essex is strict and do not allow any other children in either sides past, so our only option was to self-fund our treatment.

After 4 failed rounds, using two different clinics, we were finally given our happy ending, when I discovered in Nov 2014 that I was pregnant, with our son Alfie, who is now 2 years old.

The cost to go through the treatment was very expensive, but we were in a good position that we paid for two rounds ourselves and our parents both supported us with one round each aswell. I for one would have kept going and going and to be honest would probably have sold my soul to have a baby of my own or our home.

I understand that many people require IVF to have their own family or extend their current family set up, and with the NHS making further cuts, soon there will be no money to support this treatment. I would like to try to help at least one couple if not more to have their dreams come true as well, so I am going to be crowdfunding to raise enough money to support a round of treatment.

So far, we have been able to raise £5545 in funds, which we received back £5232.04 after JustGiving took their fees off, and then £5000 was transferred to a private clinic in 2019, which paid towards a lovely couple to undergo their first IVF cycle.

In March 2020, we received the news that the treatment had been a success, but not long after at their next scan it was discovered the sac was empty. The couple, along with myself were totally devasted at what life had thrown at them. The couple had opted to raise some funds themselves as well and had signed up with the clinic to pay for a course of cycles and do have frozen embryos to use in the next cycle. It wasn’t a straightforward cycle the couple went through, and it did involve a third-party being part of the whole treatment package. We do hope that the couple will try again this year (2020) and will share any news with us, when the time is right.

We are now ready to start the fundraising for the next cycle to take place and have £312.96 left over from the first lot of fundraising, which has been added to this account already, and we will start the fundraising again.

We will use my own business to get the word out there and when we are near the target I have set, we will then set about to find a couple to help, who do not have the funds or access to help and support from family and friends to undergo treatment.

We have created our Dolly Mixture Disc range on our online shop to sell, and £1 from every pack we sell will be given to this justgivingpage, full details of amounts will be clearly published.

If everyone I know on my Instagram page gives just £1.00 we would be able to raise a massive £104K, which would actually pay for approx. 20 rounds, just think if we can help 20 different couples/individuals to have their happy ever after.

I thank you for reading my story and why I want to help others and keep my fingers crossed that with the power of social media we can all help each other.

Please note, that no funding will ever be released to the awarded person private account, we will require access to the clinic you use and invoices will be required before we pay the clinic direct, this is to ensure the money is used in the correct way.

Much love

Sarah xxx