The women who gave birth to their dead husbands' babies

Diane 血, the 未亡人 who won the 権利 to have a baby using the frozen sperm of her late husband, recently 発表するd she is 妊娠している again. Mrs 血, 35, already has a three-year-old son, Liam, by her husband Stephen, who died of meningitis in 1995, and their second child is 予定 in July.

Here, three women who conceived children through 人工的な insemination after their husband's deaths tell us their haunting stories.

Donna Ceairns, 27, a nursery nurse from Coventry, has a six-week-old daughter, Billie-Marie, by her husband Colin, 31, who worked in the 輸送（する） 産業 and died in March, 2000. She says:

When my daughter is old enough to understand, there's a very special ビデオ I'd like her to watch. My husband made it for her eight months before he died.

In it, he tells her how much he loves her, and shows her the 現在のs he bought for her - a little Coventry City football team （土地などの）細長い一片 and baby bibs.

Colin never got to see her, or to even know whether she was a boy or a girl. He died two years before she was born. Billie is truly a 奇蹟 baby, as I had her by 人工的な insemination using Colin's frozen sperm, 寄付するd before he had chemotherapy to fight the 癌 which killed him.

We'd met in a 地元の pub in 1995, and had a big white wedding three years later on July 18, 1998. Unknown to me, though, Colin had just been 診断するd with 癌.

He'd already 苦しむd what doctors thought was a facial 一打／打撃 two weeks 以前 and had been given steroids, and had a grommet fitted in his ear because he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be able to smile on our wedding pictures.

But what he didn't tell me was that doctors had 設立する a 影をつくる／尾行する on his ざっと目を通すs, which showed a 急速な／放蕩な growing tumou r in his nose. They'd told him he only had a 20 per cent chance of 生き残り, and needed chemotherapy.

But he chose not to tell me, so it wouldn't 廃虚 our day, and 辞退するd to have 治療 until after our two-week honeymoon in St Lucia, where he was his usual 肯定的な self. The week we got 支援する he broke the news. I just ran out of the house 叫び声をあげるing. I 辞退するd to believe it. It seemed so cruel.

I went with him that week to his next hospital 任命 at Walsgrave Hospital. The doctor told us the 治療 would make him infertile, and 示唆するd 蓄える／店ing his sperm.

We'd often talked about having children, so we thought it was a good idea. I went with him as he deposited three vials of sperm for 氷点の. He 調印するd them over to me in 事例／患者 anything should happen, but I 辞退するd to think about it.

BY December 1998 the chemotherapy seemed to have worked, and the tumour had shrunk. But soon he started having 厳しい 頭痛s and 黒人／ボイコットing out. 実験（する）s in July 1999 showed it had returned.

Doctors gave him only a few months to live. They said there was nothing they could do, apart from more chemotherapy to give him a little longer. I felt sick, but he was so 勇敢に立ち向かう.

During counselling I was asked how I'd feel about bringing up the baby alone, and what I'd do if I had a 多重の birth. I remained 確固たる. I just 手配中の，お尋ね者 them to do it.

I underwent my first 人工的な insemination at Walsgrave Hospital in September 1999, where they took eight to ten eggs under 地元の anaesthetic, fertilised them with the sperm and put two 支援する.

Colin was there with me. We were 荒廃させるd when I later 設立する out I wasn't 妊娠している, but I was 決定するd to carry on. Sadly, Colin was with me for only one more failed 試みる／企てる, in February 2000. He died on March 9 that year.

I nearly gave up because I 行方不明になるd him so much, but knowing it was what he'd 手配中の，お尋ね者, I carried on. Some people said I was wrong bringing a baby on to this earth without a father, but I 辞退するd to let them 阻止する me. It was 非，不，無 of their 商売／仕事 - and, more importantly, it was what Colin and I 手配中の，お尋ね者.

I had three more 不成功の tries until the last one in April 2001. It was 肉体的に draining, and the hormones I had to take each day for a month to get my 団体／死体 ready made me ratty.

When they said I was 妊娠している two weeks later, I was so chuffed. My mother was with me and all the nurses （機の）カム out to congratulate me. It had cost nearly £2,000 in all - paid for with Colin's 保険.

Billie-Marie was born by caesarean on January 3, 2002. She

had dark hair and 重さを計るd 5lb 11oz. My mother was there at the birth and we were in 涙／ほころびs.

It 傷つけるs that Colin wasn't able to see her. But I'm a 広大な／多数の／重要な 信奉者 that he's looking on somewhere. It was also hard seeing the other mums with their partners on the 区, but I had a lot of 訪問者s.

We'd already moved in with my mother before Colin had died, so that she could help us, and she's been a godsend. 存在 a 選び出す／独身 parent is hard work, but Billie is such a good baby.

She looks so much like her daddy. She's got his blue 注目する，もくろむs and long fingers. I carry her around the house and point out her daddy in the pictures. I know he'd have loved her. When she's old enough I'll tell her how she was born and how 勇敢に立ち向かう he was.

I'm also lucky that, unlike some of the mums in my 状況／情勢, I've been able to put Colin's 指名する on her birth 証明書. It says 'warehouseman, 死んだ'. I didn't realise that by 法律 Colin's not recognised as the father because he's dead.

I'd told the registrar I was married and that Colin had died, and she just wrote his 指名する on.

I have no 悔いるs about what I've done. There are four of our embryos left and I won't 支配する out having another baby.

I'll have to wait and see. If I do 会合，会う someone else in the 未来, they'll have to take Billie-Marie and me as a 一括. But I'll nev er let our daughter forget her dad.