After battling infertility and a rare lung tumour, a Moray couple say having a second baby would “be the light at the end of the tunnel”.
Meeting at the age of 13, Danielle and Michael Beaton were devastated to learn that they were incapable of a natural pregnancy.
However, after becoming engaged in 2017, the pair were “completely blown away” after a successful initial round of IVF brought them baby Anna the following May.
“We were absolutely over the moon,” Mrs Beaton said.
“We couldn’t believe it, I thought I was seeing things wrong when I saw the pregnancy test.
“We were both just utterly shocked and couldn’t believe it was true, we thought there was no way.
“At the time we were living at my dad’s house and I just ran downstairs shouting ‘Dad, it’s worked! Oh my gosh it’s worked!’”
However, 30 weeks into their pregnancy, call centre employee Mrs Beaton became drastically unwell.
‘Heartbreaking’ tumour
“I was taking a call at work and I became unable to breathe, I could barely get my words out,” she said.
Following a CT scan, the couple were told that Mrs Beaton had an four-inch tumour in her lung.
“It was heartbreaking,” she said.
“They couldn’t be straight with me at the time but deep down I had this overwhelming sense of ‘Oh no, this isn’t good’ and I thought that I wasn’t going to be able to watch my daughter grow up.
“I thought she was going to grow up without a mum like I did and that is the last thing I ever wanted for her.”
However, doctors told Mr and Mrs Beaton that they had to hold off on any more tests until the baby was born.
“It was agreed because of how unwell I was that they would have to get my baby out at 36 weeks and go for a C-section.
“Unfortunately, she was born very unwell – we weren’t expecting her to be as unwell as she was.”
‘She was on life-support’
Mrs Beaton said: “She was on life support for six days and was put on oxygen for a further four days.
“But at 11 days old she was free from hospital.”
Just two weeks later, in another dramatic turn of events, Mrs Beaton was back in hospital where she was told that she would need to undergo life-changing surgery to remove part of the tumour for it to be tested.
She said: “It has left me quite disabled, I have a damaged nerve in my lung which has limited my breathing.
“I am in a lot of pain from the nerve damage but I have completely accepted it, I am still here, I am still alive and I’ve learned to live with it and I am fighting it all the time.
“When I got the results back in June 2018 they told me that I had an extremely rare condition.”
The 27-year-old, from Forres, says it was then that her doctor told her she had an extremely rare condition called unicentric caslteman’s disease.
Shock diagnosis
“The doctor said that in his 30 years of being a doctor he’s never ever once come across it, there is not enough research done on it to understand what it is exactly, but it is grouped in with the cancers,” she said.
Now, a year after numerous rounds of infusions, chemotherapy and a rollercoaster of emotions, Mrs Beaton says: “Our hearts just felt like we had more space for another addition to the family.
“We have come this far, we have nothing to stop us so lets do it,” she said.
And despite a small growth on Mrs Beaton’s tumour, the couple has been informed that it’s safe to proceed with another round of IVF.
“There’s more room for another baby, it is just a dream and our little girl keeps shouting that she wants a baby brother.
“It’s like the light at the end of the tunnel and after all this negativity and fear in our lives we just want something positive to look forward to, just to complete us.
“If it never happens then we are already very lucky in the sense that we have our daughter and she is everything to us but it would just be so amazing to have another little one.
‘Anna literally saved my life’
“Having Anna through all of this is the reason I am still here – she literally saved my life and she continues to do it all the time.
“She is the reason we have fought through all of this, she has been there for me and I know she is only little but when you are feeling down and you don’t know how you are going to cope you look at your little one and you think – I have to, I have got this little human being to look after.”
With a cost of £6,000 for one round of IVF, the couple has already raised £5,000 but are crowdfunding the remaining £1,000 on their GoFundMe page – which you can donate to by clicking here.