The 33-year-old widow is pregnant with her late husband’s child after IVF treatment

The widow, who is pregnant with her late husband’s child, has revealed how she passed the circle IVF with her frozen sperm.

Lauren McGregor, 33, of Merseyside, Liverpool, became pregnant with her late husband’s child in September 2021 and is due to give birth this month.

Her husband, 37-year-old Chris McGregor, froze his sperm in 2017 after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor in December 2013.

Chris ’symptoms and treatment ranged from 2013 to 2020, including periods when he was in remission before he died in July 2020.

Lauren, who runs a party planning company in her hometown, said: “Looking back, I’m kind of sorry we didn’t try to have a baby when he was still alive.”

“With his health, it’s always been lately, it seemed like something was always stopping us. But people always say it’s never the right time for a baby.

“I started this journey to have a piece of Chris, I don’t want mercy or anything, just to raise awareness to say it’s possible.”

Lauren said that although she can’t wait to become a mom, it’s hard to know that her child will never be able to meet Chris.

“I’m really looking forward to becoming a mom, although I’m sad that the baby will never meet Chris,” she said.

‘All our friends knew we wanted children together, so they are not necessarily shocked, but just surprised by the situation. They were all wonderful, so supportive.

‘At first I held it quite close to my chest, I only informed a few of our close friends and family about it.’

Lauren has four more frozen embryos that she could use for future babies.

She said: ‘I think when this one reaches three or four, it would be something I would consider doing again.

‘It’s funny, in this pregnancy I suffered a lot from nausea and weakness and I told a friend to never let me do that again!

But when it’s the past, you get excited about everything that comes your way, like any mother. ‘

Lauren began documenting her journey on it Instagram to raise awareness of posthumous conception as an option for couples.

“I started sharing my trip because I wanted to raise awareness about it as an option,” she said.

“Even the fact that it can be done this way, not everyone knows it is a possibility, and a lot of paperwork needs to be filled out.

“If you go to a fertility center and go through any cancer treatment, it’s part of the process to have a consent form to sign with your partner if something happens to you.

“It doesn’t happen if you’re not sick yet, so if you do and unexpectedly lose a partner, you may not be able to use the sperm or eggs your partner stores.

“You never know what’s around the corner, so I think we should change the process and make that standard for everyone.”

Lauren and Chris have known each other since childhood and first met just nine months before he fell ill.

“Chris and I have known each other since childhood, our moms were really good friends,” she said.

“We reconnected in 2012 and started walking in April 2013, so it wasn’t long before his first symptoms.

When he died, I had to wait nine months before I could start the IVF procedure as a kind of mourning period and to make sure of what I was getting myself into.

‘Having a baby was something we talked about for years when we were together and said we wanted to do it.’

Chris ’symptoms started very mildly as early as 2013 and he went into remission several times.

She said: “Obviously we didn’t know the symptoms at the time, but they started in October 2013.

‘He felt bad, he went to the doctors because he had a cold, he got a fever if he got up a little too fast.

We were on the phone in December 2013 and lost the signal, but we had previously agreed that he would call me if we ever lost the signal, so we didn’t both ring each other at the same time.

‘We lost the signal and he didn’t call me for an hour, but when he did, he said it took so long because he couldn’t remember my name to call me back.’

The couple immediately booked an appointment with a general practitioner, who recommended that they go to the clinic.

Lauren said: “They quickly ruled out a stroke and did some blood tests and then a CT.

When they confirmed that something was on his examination, they accepted him immediately, and in March 2014, he had brain surgery.

‘They managed to remove 95 percent of the tumor and a year later he recovered almost completely.’

Chris ’tumor has returned several times, once in 2016 and again in 2019.

Lauren said: “His symptoms returned at the end of 2016, but he was not big enough for surgery, so he underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

“Then in November 2019, he started describing the same symptoms again and we found that he had another tumor on the other side of his brain.

“In January 2020, he started chemotherapy, and after three months, the second one disappeared and the first one was withheld.

“The doctor recommended stopping chemotherapy because COVID did not want his immune system to be compromised.

“In May, symptoms returned, and a second examination showed the tumor had grown amazingly, and he died in July.”