Cancer patient fights to save her fertilised eggs
The embryos were created using eggs which Natallie Evans, 30, had taken from her ovaries before they were removed in a life-saving cancer operation.
But her dreams of IVF treatment were shattered when her fiance, Howard Johnston, who willingly fertilised the eggs, said he now wanted the embryos destroyed.
She and Mr Johnston, who met while working at a mobile telephone call centre in 1999, had tried in vain to have children for 18 months.
When she went for medical checks doctors stunned her by telling her she had potentially fatal ovarian cancer.
So she had 11 healthy eggs removed and fertilised last October before the ovaries were removed. Six of the eggs were successfully fertilised.
The couple paid more than £3,000 at the private Bath Assisted Conception Clinic and Mr Johnston signed a form agreeing that the sperm or embryos should be kept for 10 years if he should die or become mentally ill.
But there was no details to say what should happen should the couple split.
Miss Evans speaking from her home: in Trowbridge, Wiltshire: “When I got the letter on Tuesday, I didn’t open it straight away, because I got quite a few from the BACC.
“When I read it, it just couldn’t believe it. I was devastated, my whole world just fell apart. I didn’t know why he was doing this to me.”
Computer worker Mr Johnston, a university graduate, whom Ms Johnston said was a child prodigy with an IQ of 180, left her in May this year.
She said: “He just decided the relationship was over and said he wanted to find himself. He couldn’t give a decent explanation.”
