Truly ‘miracle’ after having her ovaries removed to treat cancer, the woman gave birth successfully

Stacey Broadmeadow, 38, was horrified when she learned she had a million-to-one uncommon cancer in 2017.

But it was a life-altering shock when she was told she would need her ovaries removed and hence would be unable to become a mother in the future.

‘I was crushed, completely sad,’ she said of her diagnosis. “Well, that’s it,” I literally thought. I’ll never be a mother. ‘I’ll never get the dream that I’ve always wanted.’

Stacey, from Stockport, first noticed something was wrong when she was spotting in between her periods and experiencing stomach pain.

After a GP ruled out pregnancy, she was sent for more tests – which revealed fluid in her womb.

Doctors suspected Stacey had a rare cancer, called pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP), and warned that she may lose her ovaries.

She added: ‘But luckily, my consultant was very positive and kind of gave me hope that she would be able to fix it and the prognosis could be good.’

Stacey underwent initial surgery at Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester but was told she would also need a second operation to remove her spleen, gallbladder, layers of tissue, fallopian tubes and both ovaries.

This would be followed by putting heated chemotherapy (HIPEC) directly into the abdomen to kill any remaining tumour cells.

But during these operations, Stacey was able to get 17 eggs harvested and underwent two rounds of egg freezing.

After she had recovered from her surgeries in 2021, the process of creating a baby began.

She said: ‘You’d think that 17 eggs would be quite a lot, but it really wasn’t. They defrosted them and I was left with about eight useable eggs.

‘We managed to get four embryos but only two then made it to the next level. So then I only had two embryos.

‘One was transferred but unfortunately I miscarried with that one.

‘And then the other embryo, which was Harry – they told me that it wasn’t the most viable embryo but they put him in the freezer anyway.

‘And so, after I’d miscarried, I kind of thought the dream was over, and I was never going to have a baby, but I thought “well, I’ve got one last chance, I’ll give it a go”.’

The final embryo was transferred in February last year with success and Stacey gave birth to her ‘miracle’ baby – a boy named Harry – last November.

‘Harry has always been wanted,’ she said.

‘Ever since I was little I’ve always wanted a baby. He is just wonderful.

‘He is an absolute miracle. Every time I look at him, I just think how lucky I am.

‘For me to be diagnosed with what I had, and to go through everything that I did, and for him then to be that little embryo that I was told wasn’t the best… I call him my little Nemo.

‘In the film, Finding Nemo, Nemo was the last little egg left. So he’s my little Nemo. He’s my little miracle. He’s just so special.’

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