GRANDMA'S IVF HOPES
Sky News
Wednesday September 10,
2003
A 56-year-old grandmother is
trying to become a mother again, 37 years after the
birth of her first child.
Priscilla Eatwell hopes to fly to Italy within the
next two weeks where she will pay a clinic £25,000 for
IVF treatment using donor eggs, according to the Daily
Mail.
Priscilla, of Botley, near Southhampton, has three
children - two daughters Sadie, 36, and Carmen 34 from
her first marriage and a daughter Sophie, 13, from her
second.
A son, Scott, died at age sixteen.
Egg donor
Priscilla and second husband Don, 69, always planned
to have another child but were delayed by financial
problems.
At age 49, Priscilla went back for more IVF but was
told she was no longer producing eggs.
Since then, the couple have spent five-years and
£10,000 scouring the country to find an egg donor.
British women can pursue IVF treatment through
anonymous egg donation until the age of 55 under the
rules of the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
False alarms
But Priscilla told the Daily Mail she had advertised
for her own donor because: "I want to know the mother of
my own child".
At 56, she is now too old to undergo IVF treatment in
this country, but there is nothing to stop her from
going to Italy.
After an involved search with many false alarms,
Priscilla has narrowed possible egg donors down to two
women who are undergoing tests to find out if they are
compatible.
If a donor matches, Priscilla hopes to be a mother
again by age 57.
