Girlfriend of tsunami victim gives birth to their boy

THE girlfriend of an English man who was killed in the Asian tsunami disaster never knowing she was pregnant has given birth to his baby.

Kelly Macro, 29, of Old Catton, Norwich, gave birth to the 7lb 4oz baby boy at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on Saturday.

Ms Macro has named her son Theodore Jez in memory of her boyfriend Jez Stephens, who died in the St Stephen’s Day tsunami.

Mr Stephens, 29 had been enjoying a three-week holiday on the Thai island of Phi Phi when the disaster struck.

He had not been seen since Christmas Day and friends discovered his body in a temple in Krabi, Thailand, at the end of January.

Mr Stephens was unaware his girlfriend was pregnant when he was killed. It was in mid-January while the search was going on for his body that Miss Macro discovered she was expecting a child.

Yesterday, she said the birth of her son had given her new hope.

“It was a real hope for me and all of his family that this little one was going to come along a few months later,” she said.

“I just think although he’s not here, now that I’ve got Theo, Jez is proud of me and of his baby son.

“I will always have Theo to remind me of my memories of Jez.

“I didn’t know about the baby until after Jez died. It was sad because I didn’t get to tell Jez about it.”

Mr Stephens, who worked for Virgin One Account in Norwich, has a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Franchesca by his first wife Emma, whom he divorced in June last year.

Ms Macro said the couple got together after the split.

She originally planned to meet Mr Stephens in Thailand but was unable do so.

“We had planned I would go out and meet him there but I couldn’t take the same amount of time off work,” she said.

Ms Macro, who lives with her parents Eileen, 57, and Ken, 58, said she tried to contact Mr Stephens as soon as she heard about the disaster but could only get through to the answering machine on his phone.

The first-time mother added: “As soon as I found out I was pregnant I knew that with everything that was going on I had to look after my health.

“I was very conscious about the pregnancy and knew that I had to look after myself so the baby was okay.”